today russian president vladimir putin took his first foreign trip of the trump era, the trump era the russian government has been so excited about. naturally when vladimir putin decided to go abroad for the first time in the trump era, he went to go see the viktator, he went to see viktor orban in his country. part of that is nationalist right wing authoritarian strong men dissent crushing would be leaders for life. those kinds of leaders tend to like each other. but part of that is also the unraveling of this international tool that we led the west in using against russia, the sanctions regime may be falling apart if putin can pick off individual members, especially on the european side, get them to stop supporting it, that may be part of it, too. part of it broadly is russia trying to peel europe apart.
courts with his loyalists. he tried to get away with a big new voter registration requirement his country had never had before. you have to submit paperwork and sign up with the government. observers said that requirement would guarantee people likely to vote against him wouldn t be allowed to vote. there that case trying to institute new documentation requirements for voting. in that case what s left of the independent judiciary was able to shut that part down for now. they tried. he s also thrilled his right wing populist supporters by inveighing against refugees and immigrants and he has also built a wall along his country s southern border. so, yeah, they call him the victator. or if you re the pleasantly drunk seeming european president you can call him the dictator before you smack him upside the head. hungary is part of europe. they have gone along with the
officials arrested, he s ousted independenjudges, packed the courts with his loyalists. he tried to get away with a big new voter registration requirement his country had never had before. you have to submit paperwork and sign up with the government. observers said that requirement would guarantee people likely to vote against him wouldn t be allowed to vote. there that case trying to institute new documentation requirements for voting. in that case what s left of the independent judiciary was able to shut that part down for now. they tried. he s also thrilled his right wing populist supporters by inveighing against refugees and immigrants and he has also built a wall along his country s southern border. so, yeah, they call him the victator. or if you re the pleasantly drunk seeming european president you can call him the dictator before you smack him upside the head. hungary is part of europe.
european side of the sanctions that the united states government organized against russia in 2014. but now viktor orban is looking at vladimir putin and seeing a kindred spirit thinking maybe we won t go along with those sanctions anymore. viktor orban sent his foreign minister to moscow last week and he declared the sanctions on russia may now be counterproductive. now maybe the european part of the worldwide sanctions on russia that we organized, maybe those sanctions are going to start falling apart. thank you, viktator. today russian president vladimir putin took his first foreign trip of the trump era, the trump era the russian government has been so excited about. naturally when vladimir putin decided to go abroad for the first time in the trump era, he went to go see the viktator, he went to see viktor orban in his country.
[ laughter ] like 9% expansion. [ lauger ] i love herman. is he the best? i have fun with him. he is a great and interesting guy. and thank you, herman, for helping pay for the event tonight. [ laughter ] who else would you rather have in charge of america s nuclear weapons and national labs but our new president picked him. but this problem, he sometimes seems drunk when he s not actually drunk, problem, it s not only a american phenomenon. in europe, in the european union there s no exact equivalent for our position of president, there s no president of europe but this is juan claude juncker and he is the president of the european commission, that s close to being the president of the united states of europe and he, too, has this same problem.