RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

RT mourns a lost ally—and predicts Europe will collapse without him.

Russian coverage is massive and revealing. RT publishes a 22,000-word essay (!), signed by Professor Schlevogt, titled "Europe's Dying Heart—The Hungarian Vote Deals the Final Blow." The central argument: the EU is a "terminal organism" and Brussels' jubilation is merely "one last adrenaline spike before system failure." The text identifies five "erosion forces" that will accelerate without Orbán as a brake—loss of a "precious obstructor," demographic collapse, energy ruin. It is a cable commentator transformed into a prophet of doom.

A second RT article, "Where will Magyar take Hungary?", is more subtle. It acknowledges the vote's legitimacy, notes that "young Hungarians, like Orbán's generation in the 1980s, demand change" and admits that Fidesz elites were "trapped in their own delusion." But it poses a poisoned question: is Magyar's "liberal conservatism" capable of managing ethnic minorities? It is the classic opening of Russian propaganda: sowing doubt about the successor's stability.

TASS plays a complementary role: reporting soberly that the EU expects Magyar to lift the veto on the 90 billion loan for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. The Financial Times is cited directly—"There's a lot of leverage on our side"—and Brussels' 27 conditions are detailed. TASS presents this as guardianship, not cooperation.