Hungary's Orban Isn't Another Putin

Given Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's reputation -- he's been called a dictator and an autocrat, albeit a "soft" one -- as a Russian in Budapest, I couldn't avoid wondering whether his rule was anything like Vladimir Putin's in Russia. So I asked some people who'd know -- both Orban loyalists and members of civil society groups that have come under attack from the government and its media.

As a result, I think that Orban's style of running his country resembles Putin's in a number of important ways. But the differences, at least so far, outweigh the similarities -- they're on key issues that determine whether a country is a democracy or a dictatorship. It's important to make a clear distinction between a government that legitimately pursues illiberal and often noxious policies and one that is fundamentally illegitimate, repressive and a danger to its citizens, whether they realize it or not.