Russian anger after US ambassador to Hungary David Pressman calls Vladimir Putin a little man

The US ambassador to Hungary is the latest US official to draw ire in the Kremlin for comments he made last week, publicly deriding Russian President Vladimir Putin as a small man and drifting away from an era when most of the world has tried to move on.

In a speech On January 6, to mark the 45th Anniversary of the Return of the Hungarian Holy Crown, Ambassador David Pressman took the opportunity to denounce Russia’s war as the product of tyranny and authoritarianism before taking a jab aimed directly at Putin.

The Russian president can only lead through fear and intimidation, Pressman said. The Ukrainians, like the Hungarians decades earlier, had already made up their mind. They had already charted their course and it didn’t involve going back to a broken, abusive system that had failed them for so long.

Russian officials apparently did not take the remarks well.

In a Telegram post on Tuesday, the Russian embassy in Hungary lashed out at Pressmans objectionable remarks about the personality of a foreign head of state, calling his comments an outrageous breach of basic diplomatic protocol and practice, according to the Russian state news agency news. TASS.

In a remarkable display of pettiness, Russian officials suggested that Pressman make up for his lack of diplomatic professionalism by reading a famous book by the patriarch of American foreign policy, Henry Kissinger, conveniently titled Diplomacy. Russian diplomats even went so far as to provide a link to a Hungarian bookstore selling copies of Kissinger’s book.

It is not the first time Pressman, a human rights lawyer, has come under attack for his candor since he was appointed US ambassador to Hungary in August. According Politico, Pressman has been the target of criticism from the country’s state media for propagandizing the Hungarian regimes and even for cheeky comparisons between comments made by Hungarian officials and Putin.

When we see crazy Kremlin stories being rebroadcast in the Hungarian media, we would say so, because we have to, he told the agency in November. All this is meant to draw us closer and not to separate us.

In response to a request for comment from The Daily Beast, the US Embassy in Budapest said: We believe the Ambassadors’ statements speak for themselves.