Russia’s influence growing in Hungary?

Opposition LMP considers “Russia’s growing influence” in Hungary to be “increasingly risky”, and has made proposals for Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, Örs Tetlák, a member of the party’s board, said on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Tetlák said that since 2010, Hungary had become one of the most important European allies of Putin’s Russia. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the government has even strengthened those ties, rather than loosening them, he insisted. Tetlák slammed ruling Fidesz for “vetoing sanctions on KGB agents”, destroyed cooperation with other countries of the Visegrád partnership, and supports Putin’s war by buying expensive and risky Russian energy.

He said Russian influence had reached such proportions that when the operation of the International Investment Bank was threatened, another covert organisation appeared immediately. Russian oligarchs also consider Hungary a safe place, Tetlák added. They set up companies here, with some of them barely concealing a Russian secret service connection. Yet, the government will not order an investigation, instead, it vetoes EU support for Ukraine “in a kind of cheap political blackmail”.

LMP proposes that the foreign minister should request from President Katalin Novák the documents that she received from the Polish president on how other countries have replaced Russian energy with alternative sources.