Efforts Paying Off
With less than two weeks until the elections in Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s government is under the spotlight and facing criticism. Péter Szijjártó, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is accused of “collusion with Russia” by a consortium of media outlets who have published the alleged recording of one of his calls with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
In August 2024, following a visit to Saint Petersburg, Lavrov called him to reiterate a favor request: Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov wanted to have his sister, Gulbahor Ismailova, removed from the European Union’s sanctions list. Péter Szijjártó explained that Hungary plans to submit a proposal to the EU, alongside Slovakia, in this regard.
The conversation in English, where there is a common disdain for the EU, “highlights the excessive courtesy between Szijjártó, representing an EU and NATO member state, and Lavrov, representing a country that has invaded and occupied a European state,” as highlighted in the investigation published by the Russian media outlet based in Latvia, The Insider.
During this call and others between 2023 and 2025, “sensitive information is exchanged regarding internal deliberations in Budapest and Brussels, which undoubtedly interests.”
