Hungarian Foreign Minister systematically informed Lavrov about the progress of EU meetings: WP
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, according to The Washington Post, regularly called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during breaks between EU Council meetings and informed him about the progress of the discussions.
The publication, citing a European security official, also reported by “European Pravda”, claims that the Hungarian minister systematically transmitted “live reports of what was being discussed” during EU meetings, as well as data on possible solutions.
“Thanks to such calls, Moscow was actually at the meeting table at every EU meeting for many years,” ‒ an unnamed European official noted.
As the article states, Viktor Orbán’s government has for years provided Moscow with crucial access to sensitive discussions in the European Union, both through its representatives and through Russian hackers’ penetration of the computer networks of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was stated by several current and former European officials, including the former head of the Hungarian Cyber Defense Service Ferenc Fresz.
The leader of the opposition party “Tisa” Peter Magyar reacted to the publication of The Washington Post, calling Szijjártó “a traitor to Hungary.”
“The fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, a good friend of Sergei Lavrov, reports to the Russians almost every minute about every EU meeting is pure betrayal. This person has betrayed not only his country, but also Europe,” he said during a speech to supporters, as reported by Telex.
Previously, European intelligence agencies reported that, amid the decline in the ratings of the ruling Fidesz party, Russian special services allegedly proposed organizing a staged assassination attempt on Orban in order to strengthen his support among voters.
Parliamentary elections in Hungary are scheduled for April 12. The latest sociological polls show that the opposition party “Tisa” retains its lead and is ahead of its rivals by 14 percentage points. Donald Trump again publicly supported Orban on the eve of the parliamentary elections and wished him victory “by a wide margin.”
