RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

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

Russian coverage is massive and telling. RT publishes a 22,000-word essay by Professor Schlevogt titled 'Europe's dying heart — Hungary's vote delivers lethal kick.' The central argument: the EU is a 'terminally ill organism' and Brussels' jubilation is merely a 'last adrenaline spike before terminal failure.' The text identifies five 'forces of erosion' that will accelerate without Orban as a brake — the loss of a 'valuable obstructor,' demographic collapse, energy ruin. It reads like a pundit turned prophet of doom.

A second RT piece, 'Where will Magyar take Hungary?', is more subtle. It acknowledges the vote's legitimacy, notes that 'young Hungarians, like Orban's own generation in the late 1980s, are demanding change' and admits the Fidesz elite was 'trapped in its own illusion.' But it plants a poisoned question: can Magyar's 'liberal conservatism' handle ethnic minorities? That's the classic opening of Russian propaganda: seeding doubt about the successor's stability.

TASS plays a complementary role: reporting dryly that the EU expects Magyar to lift the veto on the 90-billion-euro Ukraine loan and Russia sanctions. The Financial Times is quoted directly — 'There's a lot of leverage on our side' — and Brussels' 27 conditions are laid out in detail. TASS frames this as receivership, not cooperation.