Tusk accused Orbán’s inner circle of passing EU data to the Kremlin
23 March 06:12
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk commented on an investigation by The Washington Post, which reported that associates of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán are passing information from European Union meetings to the Kremlin, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
“The news that Orbán’s people are informing Moscow in minute detail about EU Council meetings should surprise no one. We have long suspected this. That is why I speak only when absolutely necessary and say only what is necessary,” the Polish politician wrote on Sunday, March 22, on the X platform.
WP: Hungary’s Foreign Minister Regularly Called Lavrov During Breaks in EU Meetings
The Washington Post article, in particular, noted that for many years, Viktor Orbán’s government provided Moscow with access to sensitive information about the proceedings of meetings among European politicians. The Kremlin obtained this information both directly from Hungarian officials participating in EU meetings and through Russian hackers’ infiltration of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ computer networks, several current and former European security officials said.
According to one of the WP’s sources, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó regularly called his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during breaks in EU meetings to provide him with “real-time updates on what was being discussed” and to inform him of potential decisions by European leaders.
“Thanks to these calls, Moscow has effectively been present at the negotiating table for many years,” the WP source noted. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Szijjártó has made 16 official visits to Moscow. The most recent visit took place on March 4, 2026, when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Szijjártó called reports of calls to Lavrov fake
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called The Washington Post’s reports false, stating that they were allegedly aimed at supporting Péter Magyar’s Hungarian opposition party “Respect and Freedom” (TISZA) ahead of the parliamentary elections. “Fake news, as always. You are lying to support the TISZA party and create a puppet government in Hungary that advocates for war,” Szijjártó wrote on the X platform.
