Donald Trump said at his press conference on Monday that he had asked Viktor Orbán for his opinion on whether Russia could be defeated in a war. We have already quoted the American president's reasoning in this larger article on the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, but it is perhaps worth mentioning it separately:
I asked the same question to a very, very smart man, Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, who is loved by many, but not by many. He lives in that region and knows both countries very well. I asked him if he thought Ukraine could defeat Russia. He looked at me as if I was asking something stupid. He said that Russia is a strong country that has gained its territory and everything through wars. It is fighting wars because it is really good at it. Orbán added that China can win in trade and Russia can win in war. This was a very interesting insight
– Trump was quoted by Mandiner. It was not revealed when the conversation took place, but it is likely that it took place during Orbán's peace mission last year.
Only those more knowledgeable in history tend to add that Russia does indeed fight a lot of wars, but it does not always win. It only suffered defeat in the 20th century:
- From Japan (1904-1905)
- In World War I (1914-1917)
- From Poland (1919-1921)
- In Afghanistan (1979-1989)
- In the First Chechen War (1994-1996)
- And among the great Soviet-Russian military failures is also the Winter War against Finland (1939-1940), which they formally won, but the goal was to completely occupy Finland, instead the fighting ended with huge losses and limited results.
