Pro-Putin European leaders reaffirm their power

ADVERTISEMENT

Belgrade shares a deep cultural and political bond with Russia. It also has an antipathy towards NATO, which bombed Serbian targets in its intervention in Kosovo 23-years ago. Hungary has a much more complicated history of distrust and overreaching toward Russian ambitions. However, as Orban and Vucic consolidated their illiberal — some critics would call it autocratic — rules over ten years, their relations with Moscow and Beijing grew closer. While Europe rallied against Russia and for Ukraine, the two elected leaders are conspicuously disobedient.