Vilnius suspected Hungarian officials of potentially passing secret information to Russia
Hungarian officials have long been suspected of possibly transmitting secret information from EU and NATO meetings to Moscow.
This was stated by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as reported by RBC-Ukraine citing Reuters.
Read also: Putin ordered support for Orban in elections: Russian political technologists are working in Hungary, – media
According to the head of the Polish government, information about potential leaks to Moscow has been coming “from various sources for a long time,” including regarding the transmission of data from closed meetings of EU countries. There were also suspicions that Russians were receiving secret information about NATO.
“As early as 2019, Lithuania requested the exclusion of the Hungarian delegation from a NATO meeting, stating that there were suspicions that the Hungarian delegation might pass highly classified information to Moscow,” Tusk added.
For his part, former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis mentioned that one NATO country expressed similar concerns that Hungary was passing information to Moscow from Alliance meetings.
“When we were preparing for the summit in Vilnius in 2023, we tried not to include Hungarian representatives in meetings, especially those discussing sensitive issues,” he added.
The Szijjártó Scandal
Recall that on March 21, The Washington Post reported that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó regularly briefed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on EU decisions during meetings.
Later, the Hungarian minister himself admitted that he regularly contacts Lavrov during closed meetings of the EU Council.
He explained this by stating that the issues discussed by member countries of the bloc allegedly need to be discussed with partners outside the European Union.
