Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed a group of political strategists and agents of the Russian military intelligence services to interfere in Hungary’s parliamentary elections in April to ensure that the current Prime Minister Viktor Orban wins the elections, investigative journalists working with European security services have reported.
VSquare project’s investigation found that Putin instructed his first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, to oversee operations targeting Hungary, reports European Pravda.
According to journalists, Kiriyenko was behind Russia's interference campaign in the 2024 presidential elections in Moldova, when Moscow used vote-buying networks, troll farms, and local activists to sway public opinion against the pro-Western President Maia Sandu.
A similar operation is now being prepared in Hungary, together with Vadim Titov, the head of the Russian Administration's Department for Strategic Partnership and Cooperation, the cited source writes.
According to the plan, Russia intends to send experts in social media manipulation to the Russian Embassy in Budapest. It appears that three individuals have already received official and diplomatic passports, granting them a certain level of immunity.
Investigators also found that Sergei Kiriyenko has ties to some organizers of Orban's Fidesz party's election campaign.
VSquare journalists note that Orban's anti-Ukrainian rhetoric provides additional cover for Russian disinformation campaigns that tend to work best when a country's information ecosystem is already receptive to them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently stated that he hopes Orban's party loses the upcoming elections, which could enable the normalization of relations between Ukraine and Hungary.
Zelensky previously stated that he hopes that "a certain person" in the EU - an allusion to Viktor Orban - stops blocking the EU's 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine, otherwise he might provide the contact details of that person to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
T.D.