On his recent trip to Hungary, Vladimir Putin stirred controversy by visiting the monument erected to the memory of the Soviet soldiers who violently crushed the Hungarian ‘counterrevolution’ of 1956. While his Hungarian hosts remained silent, the symbolic dimension of this act of territorial marking sent chills through the region, especially among those who remember the era before 1989.

The event is also a reminder that, while the eyes of the world are set on Ukraine, another conflict is brewing in the smaller countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Russia’s war with Ukraine will come to an eventual end, most likely with an outcome that will not be favorable for the future of Ukraine as a free, democratic, and prosperous society.