WP got acquainted with the internal report of the SVR, which was received by European intelligence.
According to the publication, last month the SVR unit began sounding the alarm due to a sharp drop in public support for Orban.
Intelligence officers proposed a likely radical move they called a Gamechanger. The SVR report, as WP writes, contained a proposal to “fundamentally change the paradigm of the election campaign” due to the imitation of the assassination attempt on Orban.
According to their plan, such an incident was supposed to move the election campaign from rational socio-economic issues to an emotional plane, where the main topics would be state security and the stability of the political system.
As of now, there have been no attempts on Orban’s life, but the very fact that such a proposal has appeared underscores how high the stakes are for Russia in the Hungarian elections, the media points out.
According to polls, Orban is inferior to the head of the opposition Tisza party, Peter Madyar, who positions himself as an anti-corruption reformer. The majority of citizens (52.3%) are dissatisfied with the situation in the country, including in traditionally pro-government rural regions.
Western officials believe the Kremlin is seeking to keep Orban in power because he helps block major EU decisions and acts as a bridge between Moscow and some of the political forces in the United States.
Orban's spokesman Zoltan Kovacs did not respond to journalists' request for comment on the SVR report. For his part, the spokesman for the illegitimate Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, called the material “disinformation.”
Context
In recent weeks, Orban and his Fidesz party have increasingly tried to redirect Hungarians' attention away from economic problems and toward external security threats. Among them is the cessation of Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline through the territory of Ukraine. Demanding the resumption of transit, Hungary blocked the approval of a €90 billion loan to Ukraine.
On March 19, the Hungarian government said it was banning three Ukrainian citizens from entering its territory, claiming they had threatened Hungary, Orbán and his family.
