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Friday, April 10, 2026

Confronting Both Zionism and the Antisemitism It Welcomes

April 10, 2026

Image by Levi Meir Clancy.

There is no more room left to mince words in the name of political correctness or anything else, for that matter. Israel has become a menace of downright international proportions, and the world must come together to confront and destroy it without conditions. Part of this proclamation has always been true. Israel has always been a menace, a hyper-colonialist killing machine founded on the principles of racial supremacy. It is only the international part of my opening statement that I might have rolled my eyes at until relatively recently.

As despicable as the Zionist cause has been from the very beginning, I have always found the notion of Israel pulling all the levers of a globalist power structure to be silly and at times downright offensive. The United States, in conjunction with a rapidly disintegrating British Empire, created Israel to be a beachhead for Atlantist Pax-American expansion into the Middle East. Israel may have built itself a formidable and influential lobby within the United States, but the notion of a quisling calling the shots has long been patently absurd.

That is, until the American Empire crossed the Rubicon into mid-century England-grade decline during the last decade. Just look at the White House if you don’t believe me. The last three presidential administrations have been helmed by two barely sentient syphilitic sexual predators, men that no healthy empire would ever sponsor to run a bingo, let alone serve as the face for a global imperial hegemon.

Meanwhile, Israel has been rapidly expanding its theater of influence to include most of the Middle East and in the process committing the most brazen and well-publicized genocide against their hostages in the Gaza Strip with total impunity not to mention gorging itself on larger and larger swaths of its neighbor’s territory, and manipulating Donald Trump into embracing a politically suicidal war with Iran that is quickly unraveling into an international disaster likely to irreparably destroy America’s imperial reputation with its allies in both Europe and the Persian Gulf.

Long story short: America is crashing while Israel is rising, and what was once a welfare scrounging Wall Street colony looks poised to become a major power broker in what very much appears to be an increasingly post-American world order. This cannot be allowed to stand. Not Again. Much like the now collapsing American behemoth, Israel is a European colony designed explicitly for genocide, and their epic slaughter-thon bears a rather uncanny resemblance to the Manifest Destiny that made Jamestown the new Rome.

The Zionist State celebrated its independence in 1948 with the slaughter of 15,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and then forced the removal of another 750,000 to glorified Indian reservations in the desert, under the threat of genocide. Much like its American cousin, the Nakba never stopped (about 134,000 Palestinians were slaughtered between 1948 and 2022), but it is currently expanding and accelerating at a terrifying pace.

Using the easily preventable attacks on October 7th as an excuse, Israel, under the helm of the increasingly despotic Benjamin Netanyahu, has effectively conquered the Gaza Strip, killing at least 75,000 while forcing over a million more into crowded camps with barely enough food and water to survive. All while Donald Trump’s heinously titled Board of Peace draws up plans to Disneyfy the rubble with the full support and cooperation of every other nation in the region, who all seem to value their cut of the spoils over their hollow bromides to Arab solidarity.

This happened while the entire world watched, while even westerners in unprecedented numbers demanded their leaders put an end to a bloodbath that smartphones and social media made impossible to sanitize. And now, Netanyahu is doing it again, the exact same thing, in South Lebanon, as we speak. His regime has openly announced its intentions to conquer Lebanon up to the Litani River and completely empty the region of its primarily Shia population in order to create what they refer to as a buffer zone. Or in other words, the gangsters have taken the Sudetenland, and now they want Poland too.

This is not a nation that deserves to exist. In fact, this is not a nation we, as a species, can even afford to allow to exist. These psychopaths have picked a fight with the entire neighborhood and used the pedo honeypot they established with Jeffrey Epstein to convince Donald Trump to throw away what’s left of America’s influence just to hold Iran back while they do it again. If it works, Israel just keeps on killing like the UK and the US before it. If it fails, Israel commits nuclear suicide with its illegal stash as instructed by the Samson Option, possibly taking down the entire planet with it.

So, I will say it again, once more with feeling, this is not a nation the world can afford to allow to exist. A single state(less) solution is the only solution. The planet simply cannot endure a third Cromwell Dynasty in an era of hydrogen bombs and hypersonic missiles.

For this observation and many others, I will undoubtedly be roundly condemned as an antisemite; however, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, I am actually quite terrified that Israel’s very necessary collapse might come at the expense of a wave of genocidal antisemitism that could easily put the Third Reich to shame, and I do not believe this to be a coincidence. I have come to believe that Israel knowingly invokes the antisemitic menace by committing such well-publicized atrocities in the name of all Jewish people as a sick kind of blackmail against the Chosen. Call it a second Samson Option.

And signs of an international backlash, while grossly exaggerated and exploited, are also growing and expanding day by day. We are seeing acts of rage provoked by Israeli war crimes being committed against innocent Jewish civilians in places as far-flung as West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Sydney’s Bondi Beach. We are also seeing hugely popular voices within the MAGA movement itself, like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, openly toying with brazenly antisemitic rhetoric and only becoming more influential in the process.

We must all confront Israel, but we must also confront this toxic runoff along with it, and we must confront them both simultaneously with the weapon of history. The Jews are not the problem here; Zionism is, and Zionism has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism or the Semitic people. In fact, Zionism is really just another malignant cell of white supremacy, and it has long disdained both Judaism and most people of Semitic descent.

Zionism emerged from central and eastern Europe during the mid-19th century as a distinctly secular strain of the same European national swamp that would fester into fascism and national socialism, and it caried many of the same characteristics too; devotion to such toxically contrived notions as ‘blood and soil’ and scientific racism, not to mention a pronounced disdain for the east, including the Jews who once closely identified with it.

This is made very clear by some of the movement’s ideological architects, like Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who once proudly proclaimed that “We are going to Palestine first for our national convenience, (second) to sweep out thoroughly all trace of the Oriental soul.” A point reiterated by Israel’s own founding father, David Ben-Gurion, when he stated, “We do not want the Israelis to become Arabs. It is incumbent upon us to struggle against the spirit of the Levant, which corrupts individuals and societies.”

It is precisely this kind of pompously garish line of thinking that led to most Jews in the 19th and early 20th centuries to view Zionists as whack jobs and heretics. In fact, many Orthodox Jewish leaders of the time viewed Judaism to be a fundamentally spiritual tradition and rejected any attempt to transform it into a political nationality as an attempt to replace Jehovah with the state.

Even most secular Jews of this era rejected Zionism, often in favor of movements like Bundism and Yidism, which promoted a kind of radical Jewish cultural autonomy within Europe with a school of largely stateless nationalism much closer to Malcolm X than Menachem Begin.

The tide only shifted after the collective trauma of the Holocaust and the various Red Terrors, when the Zionists managed to leverage the horrors of the bloodlands to stifle any voice of reason that attempted to remind the Jews that these were the very same Ashkenazi supremacists who had in fact quite openly collaborated with the regimes of Hitler and Stalin in reckless attempts to achieve their shared goal of removing the Jews from Europe and using them to Europeanize the Middle East.

This is why German Zionist organizations were the only Jewish orders not banished by the Nazi’s 1933 Nuremberg Laws, and this is why those same Zionists collaborated with the Third Reich on the Haavara Agreement, which brazenly broke the international boycott on Hitler’s regime in exchange for the Nazis compensating German Jews to emigrate to Palestine. A Faustian bargain that saw 60% of all foreign capital invested in Jewish Palestine between 1933 and 1939 coming directly from the Third Reich.

The Zionists continued in this spirit long after their Nazi pals stabbed them in the back to the tune of 7 million Jews and built a distinctly white supremacist colony in Israel made for the Ashkenazi elite by the Ashkenazi elite. In fact, they only invited the Arab Jews, still quite happily strewn across Africa and the Middle East, because the European colonialists lacked the numbers necessary to expel the indigenous Palestinian population alone.

However, they invited these Jews with bombs, launching false flag attacks against synagogues belonging to the regions oldest continuous Jewish population in Iraq in order to stampede terrified Arab Jews into a state that unceremoniously labeled them Mizrahim or “Eastern Dwellers” before stripping them of their diverse cultures through a variety of so-called “national projects” which included involuntary detention in “absorption camps” and removing newborn babies from the arms of their Arab Jewish mothers.

Perhaps the sickest irony of this often-overlooked chapter of history, though, is that those so-called Mizrahi Jews likely have far more in common with the Palestinians they were corralled to wipe out than they do with their paler tribesmen. Many Israeli historians and geneticists now believe that today’s Palestinians were actually the original Jews of Biblical times before converting to Islam or Christianity, and that the sainted Ashkenazi were in fact merely European converts originating from the Kazar Empire of the Caucasus region.

Tragically, Israel succeeded in making the Mizrahim white the same way America did the Irish, by siccing them on their own in a genocidal contest for survival. Netanyahu’s Likud built its rise to power on the backs of the Mizrahim by promising them land and fortune in the illegal settlements of the West Bank. Within decades, these Jews who David Ben-Gurion once referred to as “rabble” had become the shock troops of Greater Israel, clearing the desert plains for the not-so-Semitic Ashkenazi elite.

However, outside the gates, the influence of the fumes produced by generations of Zionist indoctrination wanes among the faithful. Young Jews are once again forming the backbone of the western flank of the anti-Zionist movement, with organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace picking up where the Bundists left off. This is way more than just pissed-off kids rebelling against Hebrew school. This is a reawakening of the true spirit of the Jewish people. One defined by anti-authoritarian resistance and egalitarianism. One defined by proud Jewish fire breathers like Emma Goldman, Abbie Hoffman, and Murray Rothbard.

These people are not our enemies. They are our hope, and any attempt to tar them with the same brush as the usurpers they righteously rail against must be confronted not just as bigotry but as downright counterrevolutionary.

We must all confront both Zionism and antisemitism, and we must confront them both at the same time for the same reason. They are both tools of the Anglo-Saxon Atlantist global order, and they are both being exploited by a burgeoning Zionist empire looking to hijack this sinking ship. We must ensure that this ship finally does indeed go down, and we must ensure that Israel isn’t allowed to take all Twelve Tribes down with them.

Nicky Reid is an agoraphobic anarcho-genderqueer gonzo blogger from Central Pennsylvania and assistant editor for Attack the System. You can find her online at Exile in Happy Valley.

Kyiv books tentative diplomatic coup with Iran war forays

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – When the US-Israeli war with Iran began at the end of February, it was widely assumed that Moscow would be one of the conflict's key winners.


Issued on: 10/04/2026 - RFI

Zelensky has sought to clinch security deals and exchange Ukrainian drone expertise for air defence missiles © Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP

Higher oil prices, a distracted Washington and a sudden need for Western air defence systems in the Gulf were seen as a boost to Moscow's four-year invasion of Ukraine.

But in Kyiv, officials and analysts say a flurry of high-level visits by President Volodymyr Zelensky and the inking of security accords across the Middle East amount to a diplomatic coup that have given the embattled country outsized clout in a region recently seen as aligned with Russia.

"Ukraine is for the first time -- and to some countries' surprise -- acting as a state that can provide security services, that can, as experts say, export defence and security expertise," Volodymyr Fesenko, a respected political observer in Kyiv, told AFP.

That is a marked turnaround from 2022 when an under-equipped Kyiv went on bended knee to the United States and Europe to appeal for sophisticated air defence systems, advanced battle tanks, and as many artillery shells as they could get their hands on.

The rapid proliferation of drones has made many of those weapons less relevant, and spurred Ukrainian rag-tag arms producers to become global leaders in drone warfare and anti-drone systems.

'Moscow extremely upset'

Kyiv's forces neutralise hundreds of the Iranian-designed drones launched by Russia every day, and as Iran started firing off drones across the Middle East in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks, Zelensky quickly deployed more than 200 of his anti-drone experts to at least four states.

Zelensky himself paid high-profile visits to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Syria -- becoming one of the first foreign leaders to visit the region during the war.

"Moscow is extremely upset with Ukraine's rapid strengthening of ties with the Gulf countries in the wake of Iranian air terror," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.

"They understand that Ukraine's unique experience has dramatically changed its role in the region," he added.

Sybiga said Russia and its close ally Iran had taken to spreading disinformation about Ukrainian anti-drone units to undermine Kyiv's diplomatic reach -- like that Iran had struck a depot housing Ukrainian anti-drone systems in the United Arab Emirates.

Despite Ukraine managing to give itself a surprise role in the conflict, the question remains what material benefit it can extract besides some good publicity.

"Frankly, in the Gulf countries you can simply ask for money," political analyst Taras Zagorodniy suggested to AFP in a telephone interview.

"This is a way to scale our own technologies and attract additional resources, because we need money to support our technologies and investments," Zagorodniy, Managing Partner of the National Anti-Crisis Group think tank, added.

Details of the defence agreements struck with several states in the region have not been made public.

Zelensky had previously proposed swapping Ukrainian drone warfare technology for the advanced air defence missile ammunition -- though that idea appeared to gain little traction.

No 'breakthrough'

The Ukrainian leader has also suggested that improved ties with the Gulf could help place broader pressure on Russia to halt its invasion.

But analysts have warned that these overtures do not amount to a breakthrough -- yet.

For one, the impact of the two-week truce agreed between the United States and Iran is unclear.

Zelensky has said Ukrainian anti-drone units will remain in the Middle East but the long-term demand for Ukrainian war tech remains in question.

The region has largely refrained from criticising Russia's invasion and has not hit Moscow with sanctions. Many states seek good relations with both sides to play a mediating role -- hosting talks or brokering the return of children.

"It is premature to speak of a breakthrough. This is not even a step -- rather a first cautious move in the right direction," former Ukrainian diplomat Vadym Triukhan wrote in a recent analysis.

To be a "game changer" for Kyiv, the pace of engagement needed to be kept up.

"If this tempo is not lost, then within a few months it will be quite realistic to reach multi-year, multibillion contracts," Triukhan wrote.

© 2026 AFP


Ukrainians shot down Iran's drones in the Gulf — what does Kyiv get in return?


By Sasha Vakulina
Published on 

Ukraine’s president announced that Ukrainian experts in the Middle East have already shot down Iranian drones in “several countries” with domestically produced interceptors.

Ukrainian military personnel have already successfully shot down Iranian Shahed-type drones targeting countries in the Middle East, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed in his first public acknowledgement of Kyiv's specialists' first results in the Gulf region.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian experts on the ground are part of a broader Kyiv’s effort "to help partners counter the same weapons used by Russia in Ukraine."

Ukraine’s president made these remarks to reporters on Wednesday, but the briefing content was embargoed until Friday.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces took part in active operations using domestically produced interceptor drones.

"We sent our military experts to the Middle East, including specialists in interceptor drones and electronic warfare. We demonstrated to some countries how to work with interceptors," he said, revealing for the first time Kyiv’s strategy following the cooperation agreements with the Gulf countries.

"Did we destroy Iranian Shaheds? Yes, we did. Did we do it in just one country? No, in several. And in my view, this is a success."

Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s military presence on the ground is "not about a training mission or exercises, but about support in building a modern air defence system that can actually work."

"In those countries that opened up their air defence systems to us, our experts were able to very quickly advise how to make those systems stronger."

"In some cases, we directly shared our experience in actual defence. In any case, all of this has had a very positive outcome, and it commands respect for Ukraine," Zelenskyy stated.

Ukraine’s agreements with the Gulf states

Kyiv signed 10-year agreements with three Gulf countries: Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, where Ukrainian companies will work with the armed forces of these countries to protect specific facilities, Zelenskyy said at the Wednesday briefing.

"My task is to negotiate volumes, services, and types of weaponry," he stated.

Zelenskyy also confirmed that the talks are currently under way with Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

In return for Kyiv’s support and expertise, Ukraine will receive "various things," according to Zelenskyy.

"In some cases, it involves interceptors to protect our energy infrastructure; in others, there are financial arrangements."

He said that ultimately these agreements will strengthen Ukraine’s energy stability.

"There are also supplies of oil and diesel for Ukraine. In some cases, we receive crude oil that will be delivered to refineries in Europe for processing. In others, we are talking about finished products – diesel," Zelenskyy explained.

“So in essence, we are helping strengthen their security in exchange for contributions to our country’s resilience – and this is far more than simply receiving money.

Zelenskyy said earlier that Ukrainian military personnel are also participating in consultations on the functioning of the Strait of Hormuz.



Zelenskiy proposes a new European version of NATO

Zelenskiy proposes a new European version of Nato that includes
As NATO weakens, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has proposed the creation of a new European security structure that would include Ukraine. / bne IntelliNewsFacebook
By Ben Aris in Berlin April 10, 2026

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has proposed the creation of a new European-centred security bloc that would include Ukraine, the EU, the UK, Turkey and Norway, as concerns mount over the future of US support for Nato.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to take the US out of Nato twice in the last month, after he called on Nato allies to join his armada in the Gulf to open the Strait of Hormuz by force and was rebuffed. As IntelliNews reported, that has brought Nato to the brink of breaking up. Trump claims that he has the authority to nix US’ membership in the alliance, but under US law only Congress can vote to exit the treaty.

Speaking amid reports of a potential US withdrawal from the alliance, Zelenskiy said Europe needed to take greater responsibility for its own defence. He suggested that a broader coalition, anchored by Ukraine’s military capabilities, could provide a credible deterrent against Russia.

“Without Ukraine and Turkey, Europe will not have an army comparable to the Russian one. With Ukraine, Turkey, Norway, and Britain, you will control security at sea – and not just one,” Zelenskiy said. He added that he remained confident Ukraine would ultimately join the EU.

Since taking office, Trump has aggressively pushed for European Nato allies to increase their spending from 2% of GDP mandated by the Welsh Nato summit in 2015 to 5% by 2035 agreed at the Nato summit in the Hague last year. This year all Nato members reached the 2% of GDP spending level for the first time with Poland spending the most, 4.3% of GDP, as it attempts to build the largest conventional army in Europe.

Despite the pledges, the US has withdrawn from supplying Ukraine with weapons directly under the Trump administration and Europe has been unable to offset the end of US weapons deliveries to Ukraine which fell in the last year. The US now provides Ukraine with weapons under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) programme, where Europe pays for them.

The proposal for a new Nato comes as Kyiv seeks strong security guarantees as part of the ongoing ceasefire talks with Russia. The White House has offered a US security deal, but Trump made it explicit this month, the deal won’t go through until Bankova gives up the remaining parts of the Donetsk region in the Donbas that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) still control. That is a red line for Zelenskiy, who continues to refuse until not only the US deal is signed, but also ratified by Congress, giving it the status of an international treaty the president can’t undo.

Ukrainians have become more ambivalent towards membership in the alliance, torn between the need for security assurances and lingering scepticism about the bloc’s effectiveness. According to a recent poll, 68.9% of Ukrainians support joining Nato, but only 54.7% say they trust the alliance, while 41.5% express distrust. Support for the idea of reacquiring nuclear weapons has also begun to rise, as another way to prevent Russia’s re-invasion in the future.

Survey findings suggest that perceptions of Nato are closely tied to its tangible actions during the war. Some 18.5% of respondents said their level of trust depended primarily on the practical assistance provided by the alliance. Other significant factors included protection for Ukraine, cited by 13.3%, and the provision of security guarantees, identified by 11.8%.

At the same time, dissatisfaction with Nato’s conduct during the conflict remains a key driver of scepticism. As IntelliNews reported, the strategy from the start has been “some, but not enough” supplies to ensure Ukraine doesn’t lose the war, but not enough so it can actually win. That formula has perpetuated the war and ensures the maximum casualties. It also means that the Western allies have withheld supplies of their most powerful weapons, long-range missiles like Germany’s Taurus in particular. Many Ukrainians view the alliance as having acted too slowly and indecisively, and as failing to do enough to counter Russian aggression.

Zelenskiy has long lobbied for Nato membership, but has been repeatedly rebuffed, most notably at the Nato summit in Vilnius in July 2023. He also put Nato membership at the top of his “victory plan” list in December 2024 to the outgoing Biden administration, but was ignored again.

As part of the 27-point peace plan (27PPP) thrashed out at the  Moscow meeting on December 3 last year between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the US envoys, it was proposed that Ukraine join the EU in 2027 as a compromise. The EU founding treaty also contains a collective security clause, Article 42/7, that requires all members to come to the military assistance of any member that is attacked. However, most EU members have rejected the idea of an accelerated membership of Ukraine in the EU.

Zelenskiy’s remarks highlight a growing debate in Europe over the continent’s long-term security architecture and the extent to which it can rely on transatlantic support

Thursday, April 09, 2026

Fact-checking JD Vance's claims that Brussels is 'harming Hungary'

U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during a pre-election rally in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 7, 2026
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during a pre-election rally in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 7, 2026 AP Photo


By Noa Schumann & Tamsin Paternoster
Published on 

Is Brussels crippling the Hungarian economy and making Budapest less energy independent? JD Vance’s speech in Budapest makes several misleading claims.

A handful of days before Hungarians vote in elections that pit long-time leader Viktor Orbán against pro-European opposition candidate Péter Magyar, US Vice-President JD Vance travelled to Hungary to endorse Orbán and critique the EU

Vance, giving a press conference beside Orbán, made a number of claims about the European Union, accusing it of "trying to destroy" Hungary's economy, sabotaging the country's energy independence and "driving up costs for Hungarian consumers".

He didn't hold back as he accused the EU of "one of the worst examples of election interference I have ever seen or ever even read about" during his trip to Budapest.

But several of Vance's claims are misleading. Euronews' fact-checking team, The Cube, looked at the three biggest ones.

Is the EU trying to 'destroy' Hungary's economy?

According to Vance, Brussels is "trying to destroy the economy of Hungary".

But there is no evidence that the European Union is deliberately targeting Hungary's economy, which remains a beneficiary of EU funding and integrated in the European single market.

What Vance may have been referring to is the fact that, as of early 2026, Brussels has frozen at least €17 billion worth of funds allocated to Hungary as part of the EU budget, over Budapest's failure to implement sufficient reforms to combat long-standing rule of law breaches and misuse of public funds.

Some of these reforms include stemming corruption, improving judicial independence and public procurement processes.

The frozen funds are a central issue in Hungary's election, with opposition parties pledging to unlock the money, which is estimated to be the equivalent of roughly 8% of Hungary's GDP.

The conditions applied to Hungary are agreed by all member states and are designed to protect the EU budget, rather than punish specific economies.

It is also not permanent, and the funds can be released if Hungary meets the agreed reform conditions. Previously, Poland saw billions in EU recovery funds delayed over concerns about judicial reforms, although this money was eventually unlocked.

Is Brussels trying to make Hungary 'less energy independent'?

Vance claimed the EU is undermining Hungary’s energy independence and increasing consumer costs, but the reality is more complex.

The remarks appear to refer to the EU's push to diversify away from Russian crude oil, an endeavour that began after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and that Hungary seems hesitant to undertake.

It also appears to refer to a dispute around the Druzhba pipeline — a key supplier of Russian oil to Hungary — which has been damaged since early 2026.

The damage has sparked a dispute between Hungary and Slovakia on one side and Ukraine on the other, with Budapest alleging Ukrainian sabotage and Kyiv blaming a Russian airstrike.

The European Union has sent an independent "fact-finding mission" to ascertain the cause of the damage.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU has sanctioned Russian energy, including a ban on seaborne oil. However, Hungary — along with Slovakia and Bulgaria — has been granted exemptions to continue pipeline imports.

Hungary remains highly dependent on Russian oil, which accounted for around 90% of its imports by 2025, according to the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), an independent think-tank based in Bulgaria.

In contrast, as part of long-term sanctions against Russia, European Union countries have all sought to diversify their fuel sources to wean EU economies off Russian oil.

But Hungary's continued reliance on Russian crude is complex and controversial. Orbán argues that switching away from the Druzhba pipeline would raise costs, but critics argue that Hungary has been slow to diversify despite having viable alternative routes that could supply the country with non-Russian crude.

Whilst Russian crude is indeed roughly 20% cheaper than alternatives, the CSD's analysis shows that this did not necessarily translate to lower prices for consumers, especially compared to neighbours in the Czech Republic, which reduced its imports of Russian crude.

Despite repeated claims that Russian imports would ensure low prices and energy security in Hungary, recent disruptions to the Druzhba pipeline, alongside turmoil in the Middle East, suggest the country has not benefited from its reliance on discounted Russian crude. Fuel prices in Hungary have risen in line with the rest of Europe amid global market instability.

Is Brussels dictating social media content for Hungarian voters?

Finally, Vance suggested that Brussels was directing social media content shown to Hungarian voters, implying EU interference in elections.

The vice president appeared to be targeting the Digital Services Act (DSA), in force since November 2022. The law is based on the principle that "what is illegal offline is also illegal online".

It aims to curb the spread of illegal or harmful content and goods, including racist abuse, child sexual abuse material, disinformation, and the sale of drugs or counterfeit products.

In November 2025, the DSA led to a €120 million fine against X over advertising transparency, contributing to tensions between the EU and Washington.

The administration of President Donald Trump has formally opposed the DSA and has targeted EU officials over it. For example, on 23 December 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that former European Commissioner Thierry Breton — seen by the administration as the architect of the law — would be barred from entering the United States for allegedly forcing US social platforms to censor users.

Thomas Regnier, spokesperson for the European Commission, told The Cube that the DSA addresses risks linked to online platforms, recalling that "in Europe, elections are the sole choice of citizens".

"Online platforms can be used to spread disinformation and manipulate citizens," he said. "Because of our Digital Services Act, online platforms have to mitigate risks to protect our democracies. In Europe, elections are not the choice of Big Tech and their algorithms."

Ahead of Hungary's elections, accounts supporting Fidesz have also accused Meta of censoring Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Fidesz official Balázs Orbán claimed users were "unable to like Fidesz-related content"

A spokesperson for the US tech company has hit back at these claims, telling The Cube there were "no restrictions on the [Hungarian] Prime Minister's accounts" and that none of his posts had been removed.

Meta's community standards, which determine whether content has a limited reach or is removed, are based on factors such as whether content is "hateful" or targets people for their race or sexual orientation, for examp

These, according to a Meta spokesperson, "apply equally to everybody".

 

MEPs warn of ‘serious' risks to Hungary election, urge Commission to act

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban gestures during a pre-election rally in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 7
Copyright Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

By Vincenzo Genovese
Published on 

A letter sent to Ursula von der Leyen denounces “potential Russian interference operation” in Hungary and “state-led intimidation,” raising concerns about the fairness of the upcoming vote.

Five senior MEPs responsible for monitoring rule-of-law concerns in Hungary urged the European Commission on Thursday to take "concrete steps" over what they describe as severe threats to the integrity of the country’s parliamentary elections on Sunday.

In a letter addressed to Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath, the lawmakers raise "serious doubts" about whether the election "can take place in a genuinely free and fair electoral environment."

They call on the Commission to "publicly assess" whether "the conditions for free and fair democratic competition in Hungary are being undermined by disinformation, foreign interference, state-resources misuse" as well as "intimidation of journalists."

In backing their call for action, they emphasize “a potential Russian interference operation in Hungary” as a covert support of the electoral campaign of the ruling Fidesz party, citing investigative reporting about an operation on behalf of Russia’s military intelligence service.

The letter —signed by Green MEP Tineke Strik and the European People's Party MichaÅ‚ Wawrykiewicz, among others— comes in the wake of several cases of election-related disinformation in Hungary over the past weeks. A network linked to pro-Kremlin actors impersonated major media outlets to spread false claims about Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar.

Hungary's close ties with Moscow have become more evident, as new leaked calls show the country's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó briefing his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during a key EU summit.

The letter also highlights the role of Szabolcs Panyi, the investigative journalist who exposed the alleged connection and was subsequently targeted in a state-led intimidation “of unprecedented severity."

“The Hungarian government filed criminal charges against him for alleged espionage, accompanied by a public campaign portraying him as a threat to the nation”, the MEPs wrote.

Another concern raised by the letter involves attempts to hack the opposition party Tisza’s IT systems — allegations that have been denounced by Magyar.

Strik and Wawrykiewicz serve as rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs, respectively, of the EU's Article 7 procedure against Hungary, a process that could ultimately suspend Budapest’s voting rights in the EU for serious breaches of the rule of law.

The other signatories involved in the procedure include Polish Socialist MEP Krzysztof Śmiszek, Belgian Liberal MEP Sophie Wilmès, and Greek MEP Konstantinos Arvanitis of The Left party.

Beyond calling for a public assessment of Hungary’s election integrity, the MEPs urge the Commission to pursue — and, where necessary, expand — infringement actions against Hungary for violations of EU law on media freedom.


'Alarming': Von der Leyen to raise Hungary's 'Russia leaks' with EU leaders

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.
Copyright Virginia Mayo/Copyright 2026 The AP. All rights reserved

By Jorge Liboreiro
Published on 

The allegations about Hungary leaking information to Russia raise the possibility of a member state "actively working against the security and the interests of the EU and its citizens", the European Commission said.

Ursula von der Leyen plans to raise the issue of Hungary's alleged practice of leaking information to Russia at the highest level of Europe's leadership, her spokesperson announced in the wake of new revelations.

The direct involvement of the president of the European Commission lays bare the widespread outrage and unease triggered by Budapest's exceptionally close ties with Moscow, which are increasingly seen as a security threat from within.

The allegations "highlight the alarming possibility of a member state's government coordinating with Russia, thus actively working against the security and the interests of the EU and its citizens," the spokesperson said on Thursday afternoon.

"This is, therefore, extremely concerning, and it's for the member state's government in question to explain itself as a matter of urgency."

It was not immediately clear when von der Leyen would raise the sensitive issue, given that Hungarians are heading to the polls on 12 April in an election where the incumbent, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, trails in opinion polls by double digits.

Officials in Brussels have been trying to keep a low profile during the electoral period to avoid fuelling Orbán's anti-EU and anti-Ukraine rhetoric, which has become the defining feature of his bruising campaign.

Initially, the Commission called on Hungary to clarify the reports and respect the principle of sincere cooperation that guides the bloc's collective decision-making.

But the line hardened this week after a new story by five European media described how Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stepped out of an EU summit to call his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to brief him about a high-stakes debate on whether to open accession talks with Ukraine, which Orbán had fiercely resisted.

A transcript from the phone conversation, recorded on 14 December 2023, shows Lavrov encouraging Szijjártó to veto the decision. "Sometimes, good-willed direct blackmailing is the best option," Lavrov is said to have told Szijjártó.

previous story by the five media outlets showed Szijjártó actively discussing with Lavrov the removal of names from the EU sanctions list.

Szijjártó has not denied the content of the revelations. Instead, he has depicted the cascade of reports as an undercover attempt to meddle in the 12 April elections.

The revelations come at a time of high tensions between Orbán and his fellow leaders over his decision to veto a €90 billion loan to Ukraine at the last stage of the process.

Meanwhile, a cross-party group of 10 MEPs sent a letter to Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, requesting limitations on the access that "certain openly pro-Russian" lawmakers have to sensitive information.

"We firmly believe that this situation (of leaks) undermines the work, trust and institutional integrity of the European Parliament, as well as the safety of our Union," the MEPs wrote in the joint letter, seen by Euronews.

"The time has come to proactively address the prevailing internal weaknesses and security threats."


New leaks reveal Szijjártó briefing Russia’s Lavrov on key EU summit

In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, shakes hands with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tra
Copyright AP Photo
By Sandor Zsiros
Published on 

Leaked calls show Hungary's Foreign Minister briefing Russia's Lavrov during a key EU summit, offering confidential EU documents to Moscow, and arranging a meeting between Orbán and Vladimir Putin.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in 2023 to brief him on a debate among EU leaders over whether to open accession talks with Ukraine at a key summit in Brussels, according to one of the transcripts of leaked recordings published by several Hungarian investigative news outlets.

The transcript, stemming from a call recorded at an EU summit on 14 December 2023, reveals that Szijjártó stepped out of the meeting to call Lavrov and brief him on the state of negotiations. It also includes Lavrov reportedly saying: “Sometimes good-willed direct blackmailing is the best option.”

The transcripts and audio recordings — obtained by media outlets VSquare, Frontstory, Delfi Estonia, The Insider and the Investigative Centre of Ján Kuciak — come days before Hungary's pivotal general election on Sunday.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule faces its strongest challenge yet from opposition leader Péter Magyar, whose Tisza Party currently tops the polls.

This contest has also placed Hungary’s close ties to Russia squarely at the centre of the campaign, fuelling tensions within the European Union.

The Washington Post had previously reported that Szijjártó had called Russian officials during breaks in Foreign Affairs Council meetings in Brussels. The minister later said such contacts were routine diplomatic practice, conducted before and after council sessions.

After the 2023 call between Szijjártó's and Lavrov, Orbán dropped his veto and left for a coffee break, allowing the other 26 EU leaders to agree on opening membership talks with Ukraine. Szijjártó remained in the room, following the negotiations even after Orbán departed.

The new leaks also include another transcript, dated 2 July 2024 — during Hungary's rotating presidency of the EU Council — which captures Szijjártó calling Lavrov again to arrange a meeting between Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

At the time, Orbán was on a self-styled peace mission, having already met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He faced strong criticism in Brussels for using the EU presidency to advance a unilateral foreign policy.

During the call, Szijjártó also appeared to emphasise the diplomatic clout of Orbán's visit. "We cannot divide the two, but I think it increases the significance that he is the Chair of the European Union," he said, according to the transcript.

In addition, the leaked recordings reveal a passage in which Szijjártó offered to share an EU document relating to Ukraine's accession negotiations.

After Lavrov sought the exact text of a compromise on language rights for Ukraine’s national minorities — confirmed by Szijjártó as decisive — the minister offered to send it directly.

"I will send it to you. It's not a problem," Szijjártó told Lavrov. "I immediately do it. I send it to my embassy in Moscow, and my ambassador will forward it to your chief of staff, and then it's at your disposal."

Szijjártó responded to the revelations on social media, calling the release of the recordings “an unusually crude and open secret service intervention.”

He added that the calls showed Hungary stands for peace, advocates for Hungarians in Ukraine, fights for affordable Russian oil and gas, and views certain actions by Brussels as “very dangerous and a complete tragedy.

Opposition leader Péter Magyar had previously characterised Szijjártó's alleged conduct as treasonous. "This is an open betrayal of Hungarian and European interests," Magyar said in March.

The European Commission also raised concerns in March, calling on Hungary to clarify the allegations, which it described as deeply concerning.