The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the outgoing Hungarian government, Peter Szijjártó, said in an interview with Telex that he did not transfer any secret data to the Russian side.
According to the official, he regularly informed his cabinet colleagues about contacts with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Szijjártó says that he has always condemned Russian aggression in Ukraine, and maintained contacts with Moscow for the peacekeeping process.
“I have always formulated clearly: the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine. But I was misunderstood… Because I believe that this war should have been ended with negotiations. And everything I did was to ensure that the communication channels remained open,” he said.
Asked whether Russia had any dirt on him or Prime Minister Viktor Orban, he said the very suggestion was offensive. The minister considers it “unfair” that he himself is considered a pro-Russian politician.
“The word “pro-Russian” is unpleasant for me, because it is not true. We are not pursuing a pro-Russian policy, but a pro-Hungarian one. We build cooperation with each country in such a way that it is good for Hungary,” he noted.
In a conversation with reporters, the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry also hinted that under Orban’s rule, areas with a Hungarian population in Ukraine were not subject to Russian bombing. To a clarifying question, he replied that “he’s not hinting at anything, but this is good news.”
“But you said “probably not an accident.” Why?” asked the presenter.
“Because they didn’t shoot there even by accident… I think that the pragmatic normal relations between Hungary and Russia, the preservation of open diplomatic channels – this contributed to the fact that areas with a Hungarian population were not bombed during this war. I believe that these are two interrelated phenomena,” Szijjártó concluded.
