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Originally Posted by Itse
I haven't been following where the situation is at exactly, but EU has pretty much run out of patience with Hungary. They've already made moves to freeze funding directed towards them (or possibly done that already, not 100% where that's at). They've also been threatened with the removal of it's voting rights in EU, and the idea of throwing them out of EU altogether has become popular enough that it can be considered a real possibility. They've also been slapped with more than 500 million in fines for violating EU migration laws. I could go on. The EU - Hungary spat has been heating up on many fronts, not just over Ukraine.
Orban doing a rhetorical 180 on Russia is pretty clearly an attempt to fend off some of that pressure. My cynical read is that he hopes to give on the rhetorical front in hopes to not have to do anything real. I doubt this does much, EU is just running out of patience there. (As much as you can make such a broad statement about a federation as large as EU.)
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That's probably it.
Orban is a coward and a scammer. He used to be anti-Russia at one point then after meeting directly with Putin in Moscow, he came back being more pro-Russian or at least trumpeting their side of the story. It's hard not to believe that he received some kind of bribe or promise to help him fulfill his own nationalistic plans one day.
I think he is now seeing that Russia can't help him anymore and is afraid of losing the EU perks. Some members of his government have at least stayed against Russia the whole time, but there is too much power consolidated in one person.