Szijjártó allegedly passed information to Russia, Washington Post claims

During the EU negotiations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was to regularly inform Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov by telephone about the progress of the discussions and possible solutions. The Washington Post reports this in its article.

These allegations were pointed out by an EU security official, according to whom Moscow thus gained an overview of what was happening at the meetings in virtually real time. Szijjártó vehemently denies these allegations. However, the US media outlet points out that such suspicions have existed for a long time.

Russian operatives were also said to have considered extreme scenarios, including a fake assassination attempt on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that could influence public opinion in his favour. Orbán is still trailing opposition leader Péter Magyar in the polls ahead of the April elections.

In a speech to his supporters reported by the Telex website, Magyar said:
"The fact that the Hungarian foreign minister, a close friend of Sergei Lavrov, reports to the Russians almost minute by minute on every EU meeting is a complete betrayal. This man has betrayed not only his country, but also Europe."

"That explains a lot, Peter," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X.

"Fake news as always. You lie to push the Tisza party and its pro-war puppet government in Hungary. You will not succeed!" Szijjártó responded to the Polish minister's statement.

(mja)