Random friends or asymmetric ‘Trojan horses’? An analysis of the far right in Central and Southeast Europe. opendemocracy.net /can-europe-make-it/vassilis-petsinis/random-friends-or-asymmetric- %E2%80%98trojan-horses%E2%80%99-analysis-of-far-ri Vassilis Petsinis What has orientated parties such as Jobbik and Golden Dawn towards Moscow, and what are the implications for Russian foreign policy in the EU-peripheries of Central and Southeast Europe? Members of Jobbik at a rally in Budapest. Demotix/David Ferenczy. Some rights reserved. The latest developments in Ukraine indicate Russia’s motive to solidify its status within the post-Soviet space. Meanwhile, Kremlin has gained sympathizers among the far right parties in the ‘old’ (e.g. Golden Dawn in Greece) as well as the ‘new’ (e.g. Jobbik in Hungary, Ataka in Bulgaria) EU member- states in Central and Southeast Europe. This acquires greater importance if one considers the successful performance of populist and far right parties in the latest European elections. Due to the limitations of this piece, I mostly concentrate on the cases of Jobbik and Golden Dawn with a broader overview of the Greek and Hungarian political landscapes. Of greater importance it is to concentrate on the alignment of these parties with Kremlin: What, in particular, has orientated parties such as Jobbik and Golden Dawn towards Moscow? What are the implications for Russian foreign policy in the EU-peripheries of Central and Southeast Europe? Why the appeal to the far right in Central and Southeast Europe? The cases of Jobbik and Golden Dawn The leaders of Jobbik (Gábor Vona) and Golden Dawn (Nikolaos Michaloliakos) have been insisting that Hungary and Greece must extend their bilateral cooperation with Russia. Márton Gyöngyösi and other Jobbik MPs had participated in the ‘independent’ electoral commission during the recent