office in Budapest.29 To further bolster his position, in early 2013 Orban embarked on a new détente with Moscow. An alliance with Russia was by no means an obvious choice for a Hungarian nationalist. But Orban was given a warm welcome in the Kremlin. Putin cheered his experiment in illiberal democracy and offered material assistance in the form of nuclear reactor technology and subsidized gas supplies, which were popular with Fidesz voters.
