Online event: Is Kyiv Beating Budapest and Bratislava at Their Own Game?

As the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion unfolded, a high-stakes energy standoff erupted between Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia over the Druzhba pipeline. 

While Budapest and Bratislava framed Kyiv’s handling of pipeline repairs as deliberate blackmail, Ukraine appears to be applying geoeconomic pressure in return, exploiting dependencies on Russian oil transit to challenge Orbán’s and Fico’s rent-seeking tactics and expose their continued ties to Moscow.

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In our latest analysis, “Ukraine Learns from Trump to Use Geoeconomic Leverage Against Orbán and Fico“, we argue that this confrontation is a test Kyiv is positioned to win, especially as Hungary approaches its highly-competitive April elections, where the opposition Tisza party leads in polls.

The event will explore:

• Why Orbán and Fico tie cheap Russian oil rents to blocking the twentieth EU sanctions package (and the 90-billion-euro support loan for Ukraine)?
  
• What geoeconomic leverage Ukraine has to confront Orbán and Fico blockades?
  
• What this standoff reveals about vulnerabilities in European energy security, sanctions enforcement and support for Ukraine ahead of potential political shifts in Budapest?
  
• Prospects for de-escalation or escalation – alternatives like the Adria pipeline and the looming phase-out of Russian pipeline oil by 2027.
  

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Speakers:

• Tomasz Kasprowicz –  Since 2023, Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica Nowa; a member of its editorial team since 2008. PhD in Finance, specialising in risk management, earned his doctorate at Southern Illinois University. An academic lecturer with experience across three continents. Since 2025, he has been an Executive MBA Programme Director at Krakowska Szkoła Biznesu. Columnist contributing to national and regional press. Since 2008, an entrepreneur in the IT industry.
  
  
• Wojciech Przybylski – He leads strategic foresight on EU affairs to improve democratic and economic security in Europe. He chairs EuropeFuture.Forum as the Editor-in-Chief of Visegrad Insight and the President of Res Publica Foundation. Wojciech is also an advisory board member at LSE IDEAS Ratiu Forum, and European Forum of New Ideas. He has been a guest lecturer at the Foreign Service Institute for the U.S. Government, Warsaw University and CEU Democracy Institute.

Moderated by Arslan Suleymanov – Assistant Editor at Visegrad Insight. He has extensive experience writing for various institutions and businesses in Europe and the United States, including The Poland Observer, United Europe e.V., and the Spykman Center. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in International Political Economy at the Central European University. 

The discussion will last 60 minutes, beginning with an on-the-record panel discussion with our speakers, followed by an off-the-record Q&A session.

Register by filling out the form: