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Hungarian Opinion: Conflicting Views on the Arrest Warrant for President Putin

• 29 Mar 2023 5:59 AM
• BudaPost

Radical pro-government commentators dismiss the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Vladimir Putin as a useless exercise, while a leftist columnist welcomes it as at least a moral gesture.

In a first reaction to the international arrest warrant on his Bádog blog, Zsolt Bayer pokes fun at the ICC, writing that he himself hereby issues arrest warrants against Presidents Biden of the United States and Zelensky of Ukraine.

On Pesti Srácok, Áron Ambrózy thinks that Putin could well be accused of war crimes on several grounds, but dismisses the specific accusation levelled against him as ‘foolish’. The population must be removed from the frontline region, after all, he writes, thus transporting children to safety cannot be a crime.

In Népszava, Tamás Rónay admits that the arrest warrant is largely symbolic, although not without reminding his readers of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s fate in the dock before an international court, albeit years after the arrest warrant was issued. At any rate, he continues, to be declared a war criminal by a competent international body is a stigma that Putin will never wash off.

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MTI Photo: Zoltán Máthé

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• Hungarian Opinion Arrest Warrant President Putin

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Launched in May 2011 to provide a balanced picture of matters covered in Hungary’s national press. Their aim is to make it easier for English-speakers to understand where this country is now and where it’s heading according to the full spectrum of media opinions.

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