Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban fosters close ties with right-wing populists, authoritarian leaders and dictators the world over — from Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel to Vladimir Putin in Russia.

In some cases, Orban even helps such politicians flee from the judiciary in their own countries.

In 2018, for example, Hungary helped Nikola Gruevski, former Prime Minister of what is now North Macedonia, to flee from Skopje to Budapest. Hungarian diplomatic vehicles were used to smuggle Gruevski across several national borders. Gruevski had been convicted of corruption and was facing a prison sentence in his native country. Instead, he was granted asylum in Hungary.

In March 2024, Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro spent several nights in the Hungarian Embassy in Brazil, likely to avoid being arrested by police.

Then, in late December, Hungary granted asylum to former Polish deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted in Poland on criminal charges and against whom a European arrest warrant has been issued.

But all these things pale in comparison to Hungary's latest "rescue mission," which involves Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and has not only major security consequences for Europe but also geopolitical repercussions.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is made up of two entities, the predominantly Bosniak and Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the predominantly........

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