Budapest-Moscow line. The head of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs covered the EU debates live?

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto regularly called Russia during breaks between meetings at the European Union forum to provide his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with live reports of the talks, the American newspaper “Washington Post” reported.

Thanks to such talks, “every EU meeting for years has practically taken place with Moscow at the table,” said one European security official in an interview with the Washington Post.

Minister Szijjarto has made a total of 16 official visits to Russia since the country launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The last one was on March 4, when he met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The American daily also reported that Russian advisers allegedly suggested to the authorities in Budapest to arrange an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which – in their opinion – would increase his chances in the parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12. Hungarian authorities rejected these reports, calling them “absurd.”

Earlier, the investigative website VSquare revealed that Russian bots were involved in Orban's campaign. The OSCE election observer in Hungary will be Putin's former translator, Daria Bojarska.

The Washington Post recalled that Orban began his political career by criticizing communist influence in his country. It was during his first term as prime minister (1998-2002) that Hungary joined NATO, despite Moscow's objections.

However, during his second term in office, which has lasted continuously since 2010, Orban began to draw closer to Russia, while criticizing liberal Western values. According to Andras Telkes, former deputy head of Hungarian foreign intelligence, “money was the most important thing” for the Hungarian prime minister. “They concluded an agreement to import Russian energy to Hungary. Russian energy was supplied not directly, but through various intermediaries,” he noted in an interview with the Washington Post.

The elections in Hungary will take place on April 12. Peter Magyar's opposition TISHA party leads Prime Minister Orban's Fidesz in most independent polls – in a February survey by Median, the party gained a 20-point advantage among decisive voters.

So far, Prime Minister Orban has received support from, among others, US President Donald Trump, and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Friday that US Vice President JD Vance will also come to Hungary before the elections.

Next Monday, Polish President Karol Nawrocki will visit Budapest and meet with Prime Minister Orban, said Marcin Przydacz, head of the presidential Office of International Policy, on Saturday.

Tusk: This news should not be surprising

The news that Orban's people are providing Moscow with detailed information about EU Council meetings should not surprise anyone, said Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Sunday, referring to reports from the American daily “The Washington Post”. The following people spoke on this matter: Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk commented on the reports of the American daily on Sunday.

“The news that Orban's people are informing Moscow about the EU Council meetings in detail should not surprise anyone. We have had suspicions about this for a long time. This is one of the reasons why I only speak out when it is absolutely necessary and I only say as much as is necessary,” Donald Tusk wrote on the X platform.

The head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also spoke on this matter. “That would explain a lot, Peter,” Radosław Sikorski wrote on Sunday on the X platform, at the same time posting a link to information from “The Washington Post” under this sentence.

“Hungarian-Russian love is blooming. The head of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijjarto, called Lavrov and provided him with information from the meetings of the Council of the European Union. A new level of betrayal of democratic Europe,” wrote on Sunday the Minister of Interior and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday that “President Nawrocki's participation in the Budapest meeting of pro-Russian and Eurosceptic politicians is a fatal mistake and confirmation of a dangerous strategy of weakening the European Union and strengthening Putin.”

“The President of the Republic of Poland intends to actively support Orban, Putin's puppet. Together with other Eurosceptics, he will celebrate hatred towards the EU in Budapest. The masks are falling quickly…” – Kierwiński wrote on X on Sunday.

(PAP)