ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the Paks II nuclear power plant extension, chiefly financed via a €10bn credit line from a Russian state-owned bank. This development ostensibly originates under the auspices of the Hungarian government's (Fidesz) ‘Eastern Opening’ foreign policy drive to attract capital inflows from countries and entities geographically located to the East of Hungary. This chapter argues this agreement functions as an important component for the Hungarian government's principal objective of self-reproduction given the high propensity for capital to be transferred to individual and/or organisational actors within the Fidesz prebendal constellation. Simultaneously, this chapter identifies nine potential advantages to the agreement. Included in this chapter are qualitative data collected during interviews I undertook in Hungary between 2017 and 2023. I supplement these data with research findings derived from secondary sources to support the arguments this chapter makes..
