Russian Ambassador was summoned to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry due to Russian TV program on 1956 revolution
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary summoned the Russian Ambassador due to the format of the Russian television coverage of the anniversary of the 1956 uprising, the Associated Press reports.
Hungary has expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Russian state media described the anti-Communist revolution of 1956. In particular, in one of the TV programs, the revolt was described as a "massacre" and the first "color revolution." In the program, it was reported that the events in Hungary were compared with the "orange revolution" in Ukraine in 2005, implying that the United States backed the uprising.
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry stressed that they will not stand for someone talking "about the revolution and its heroes in a humiliating manner." This included the program, Vesti Nedeli with Dmitry Kiselyov, which aired on the 23rd of October with a story about the anniversary of the events in Hungary.
"Perhaps, Hungary had the first "color" revolution in a friendly country," Kiselyov asked. The word "massacre" was also used in the text of the story.
The anti-Communist uprising in Hungary occurred from the 23rd of October to the 9th of November, 1956. During the armed uprising more than 2,500 Hungarian and 700 Soviet soldiers were killed. After the uprising, 200,000 Hungarians left the country.