Hungary’s new government has launched one of the most significant overhauls of the Hungarian intelligence services in recent years, replacing senior officials across the national security system and signalling a broader attempt to repair damaged confidence among EU and NATO partners.

The changes are not only administrative. They follow years of controversy over Russian intelligence activity in Hungary, alleged leak risks in Western alliances, and questions about how firmly the Orbán government responded when Moscow-linked operations affected Hungarian state institutions.

Hungarian intelligence services get new leadership

The first major step came in June, when Prime Minister Péter Magyar dismissed the heads of four key national security bodies: the Constitution Protection Office, the Information Office, the Special Service for National Security and the Military National Security Service. According to 24.hu, the decision affected Szabolcs Bárdos, Krisztián Oláh, Csaba Kiss and Norbert Tajti.

The shake-up continued this week, when Anna Hatala, director general of the National Information Centre, was also removed with effect from 2 July. Index reported that the decision was published in the Hungarian Gazette and was made on the proposal of the minister responsible for civilian national security services.

New appointments have also begun. Telex reported that Brigadier General Szabolcs Tóth was moved to head the Special Service for National Security, while Zsolt Antal Annus was transferred from the National Information Centre to lead the Constitution Protection Office.

What these services do: a guide for foreign readers

For international readers, Hungary’s intelligence structure can be difficult to follow. The Constitution Protection Office is the country’s civilian domestic counter-intelligence service. According to the office’s official English-language website, its fundamental objective is to protect Hungarian citizens, constitutional values and the institutions of the democratic state governed by the rule of law.

Hungary’s official national security portal, nemzetbiztonsag.hu, says the main mission of the national security services is to protect Hungary’s independence and legal order, as well as its national security interests. In practice, the system includes civilian foreign intelligence, domestic counter-intelligence, military intelligence and counter-intelligence, and technical support for national security work.

This means the current personnel changes affect the full chain of intelligence activity: collection, analysis, counter-intelligence, technical surveillance support and the flow of information to government decision-makers.

The Russia issue behind the reset

The most sensitive background issue is Russia. The strongest documented case is the long-running penetration of Hungary’s Foreign Ministry systems by Russian intelligence-linked hackers. Investigative outlet Direkt36 reported that hacker groups associated with Russia’s FSB and GRU gained extensive access to the ministry’s internal networks, including diplomatic communications and systems handling classified information.

The problem was not only the cyberattack itself. In a later article, Direkt36 reported that Western allies were puzzled by the Orbán government’s mild public reaction after the hacking became known. The outlet wrote that Russian hackers had again penetrated the ministry’s systems by mid-2020, while Budapest did not respond with the kind of public diplomatic confrontation seen in several other NATO states after Russian espionage cases.

Another important precedent was the Budapest-based International Investment Bank. In 2023, the US Treasury sanctioned the Russia-controlled bank, saying its presence in Hungary enabled Russia to increase its intelligence presence in Europe and opened the door to Kremlin influence operations in Central Europe and the Western Balkans.

Allied trust became a security question

This background helps explain why the restructuring of the Hungarian intelligence services is being watched beyond Budapest. The issue is not simply that Russian services operated against Hungary; Russian intelligence targets many EU and NATO countries. The more damaging question was whether Hungary recognised the threat clearly, protected allied information properly and responded firmly enough.

The distrust was not theoretical. Reuters reported in March that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Lithuania had warned as early as 2019 that Hungarian officials could pose a leak risk inside NATO. In the same report, former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Hungarian representatives were avoided in some sensitive preparations for the 2023 Vilnius NATO summit.

This does not mean that Hungarian agencies were formally excluded from all allied intelligence cooperation. That would be too strong a claim. The more precise point is that, according to public reporting, several allies became more cautious about what they shared with Hungary and in which formats. In intelligence work, such caution is already a serious political signal.

VSquare also reported this year that Hungary had quietly expelled a Russian diplomat identified by Hungarian authorities as an SVR officer. According to the outlet, the diplomat had operated around right-wing and foreign policy think tanks close to the Orbán government, building contacts, cultivating informants and identifying possible recruitment targets.

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What the new government must prove

The leadership changes may mark a clean break with the Orbán-era national security structure, but personnel changes alone will not restore confidence. The new government will have to show that the Hungarian intelligence services are professionally independent, politically controlled but not politically weaponised, and able to protect sensitive allied information.

That will require stronger cyber security, clearer counter-intelligence priorities, more credible parliamentary oversight where secrecy allows it, and a more visible stance against Russian intelligence activity.

For Hungary, this is not only a domestic institutional reform. As a member of both NATO and the European Union, trust is part of national security. The success of the reset will depend on whether allies believe that Budapest has not only changed the people at the top, but also the political habits that damaged confidence in the first place.

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