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When terrorists attack, Russia blames Ukraine; Bolsonaro looks for an exit plan

Jair Bolsonaro’s days of freedom are numbered, and he knows it, said Ricardo Noblat. Our lawbending ex-president is the target of numerous criminal investigations, including one that puts him at the center of a coup conspiracy. Last week, we learned that Bolsonaro had fled to the Hungarian Embassy in Brasília back in February, possibly to seek asylum. Federal police had just accused him of taking steps to overturn the 2022 election, which he lost to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and of pressuring military chiefs to help topple Lula’s government. Video from the Hungarian Embassy, obtained by The New York Times, shows that Bolsonaro “slept, ate, and drank” there, on what is technically foreign territory, for two full days, courtesy of Hungary’s strongman leader, Viktor Orban. Bolsonaro claims he went to talk politics, saying, “I have a circle of friends with some world leaders,” but authorities are incensed and believe he might have been trying to skip town. So why didn’t Bolsonaro ask his buddy Orban for asylum? Maybe it’s too “cold and snowy in Budapest.” Or perhaps he’d relish being hauled off in handcuffs to “become a martyr” to his insurrectionist cause. At this point, it’s all but “inevitable that he will be arrested,” so he’ll get his chance.