Thanks NYT! My experience in Coatesville PA taught me the Christian extremist right are grifters. Allegedly some the money going into Doug Mastriano’s campaign for PA Governor might originate in Russia. Distributed by Viktor Orban's M.C.C.

“Mathias Corvinus Collegium, known as M.C.C., the education foundation that benefits from the Hungarian energy company’s business with Russia. The foundation holds a 10 percent stake in MOL, which relies heavily on deliveries of Russian oil to feed its main refinery southwest of Budapest and another one it owns in Slovakia…”

The title of this article could have been “The Republican Party is financed in part by Russian Oil:”

“BUDAPEST — Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary has fiercely resisted a proposed European embargo of Russian oil, saying it would devastate his country’s economy. Other potential casualties of such a ban would be things close to his heart: his populist campaign promises, and a financial gravy train for culture warriors in Europe and in the United States.”

Both have been fueled by Hungary’s profits from Russian crude. Gorged with cash thanks to cheap supplies of Russian oil and gas, the Hungarian energy conglomerate MOL — one of the Central European nation’s biggest and most profitable companies — last month announced it would pay dividends of $652 million to its shareholders.

More than $65 million of that will go to a privately managed education foundation that last year hosted the Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a festival of right-wing pundits in Hungary. It has also provided stipends and fellowships to conservative Americans and Europeans looking for a safe haven from what they bemoan as the spread of “cancel culture” back home.

Some of them featured this week at the first Hungarian edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, a gathering of the right wing of American politics. The event, at which Mr. Orban gave the keynote speech, opened in Budapest on Thursday under the slogan “God, Homeland, Family.”

A steady supply of Russian energy has become such a central part of Mr. Orban’s economic and political model that ending it “is a red line for him,” said Andras Biro-Nagy, founder and director of Policy Solutions, a Budapest research group. “Russian oil and gas are absolutely vital to his whole scheme.”

This dependence has alarmed even some of his foreign fans who have taken up paid positions at Mathias Corvinus Collegium, known as M.C.C., the education foundation that benefits from the Hungarian energy company’s business with Russia. The foundation holds a 10 percent stake in MOL, which relies heavily on deliveries of Russian oil to feed its main refinery southwest of Budapest and another one it owns in Slovakia…

Giving the keynote address at CPAC on Thursday, Mr. Orban mentioned the war in Ukraine, calling Russia the aggressor, but mostly focused on advising conservatives how to succeed politically. “The first point,” he said, “is that we must play by our own rules.”

Mr. Carlson, the Fox News host who has taken Russia’s side in its war with Ukraine, sent a brief video message of support for the conference.

Most speakers avoided the issue of Ukraine, though one, Gavin Wax, a conservative commentator from New York, complained about tens of billions of dollars spent supporting Ukraine and “nonstop media propaganda pushing for World War III” with Russia.

The main organizer of the event is the Center for Fundamental Rights, a Hungarian outfit funded by the government that says it is fighting to repel the “relentless attack” on “Judeo-Christian culture, patriotism, sovereignty, the family, the created nature of man and woman and our commitment to life.”

The center initially said it was working on CPAC’s Budapest event with the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. The foundation, however, denied helping to organize CPAC, though it said it supported its aims.

Mr. Szalai, the M.C.C. general director, denied his foundation pushed any political agenda, saying in an interview that its mission was to promote “classic common sense.”

“To say we are far right is not fair,” he added.

Mr. Orban’s critics say that M.C.C. has established itself as what Mr. Biro-Nagy of Policy Solutions calls “one of the crown jewels of Orban’s mission to create a conservative, cultural hegemony.”

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In Hungary, Cheap Russian Oil Fuels Right-Wing Culture Wars

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has resisted a proposed E.U. embargo of Russian oil, saying it would devastate his country’s economy, but it would also cut off a source of funds for his political allies.

By Andrew Higgins and Benjamin Novak

Published May 19, 2022

Updated May 20, 2022, 5:55 a.m. ET