Viktor Orbán and his fellow Visegrád Four prime ministers met yesterday in Budapest, ultimately adopting a proclamation on the issue which stated in part that “The Visegrad Group countries, as neighbors of Ukraine, are convinced that the use of force cannot contribute to the resolution of political conflict. A further escalation of the crisis endangers the future of Ukraine and threatens with a complete destabilization of the country. In this regard, we are also concerned about the role played by extremist groups in the events…
“Ukrainian stakeholders […] should be guided by their historical responsibility to preserve a stable, democratic and unified Ukraine. We call on all sides to stop the spiral of violence immediately. We call upon the authorities to respect the right of Ukrainians to peaceful assembly and to the freedom of expression…”
Gov’t decided on Paks, Russian involvement
In the same interview, Martonyi also stated that his government is going forward with its nuclear energy-emphasizing program, essentially considering prospective Russian investment in the Paks nuclear power plant a done deal. Further, “those who currently criticize [the plan to expand the Paks plant] were also involved in that decision and in fact it was they who initiated it.”
As for its prospective partners in the Paks project, the Russian government-owned Rosatom, “nobody else could really build [new reactors]” but the Russians, since they are able to guarantee full safety and conditions for financing that are acceptable to the country.



