Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó shared sensitive information from EU meetings with the Kremlin and received instructions from his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, according to investigative journalists citing leaked recordings of his phone calls.
“From a purely personal and civic perspective, this behaviour is disgusting and incomprehensible,” said Jan Paďourek, a former deputy head of the Czech civilian intelligence service.
In an interview, he outlines who could have wiretapped the foreign minister and under what circumstances.
What we ask about in the interview:
Who could have made the recordings of the calls between the Russian and Hungarian foreign ministers?
What might have been the motivation for passing them to journalists?
Who in Brussels has the authority to wiretap the foreign minister of one of the Member States?
What does it mean that some pro-Russian steps were taken by the Hungarians in cooperation with the Slovaks?
Recordings of the calls between Hungarian minister Péter Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov show how far Hungary goes to accommodate Russia. Had you been worried for a longer time that important information was leaking from Budapest to the Kremlin?
Anyone who has been following Hungarian foreign policy more closely in recent years – the visits of top Hungarian politicians to Moscow, the efforts to advance Russian interests, or Orbán’s anti-Ukrainian policy and rhetoric – must inevitably fear that, alongside this visible form of cooperation, there may also be a covert part, possibly accompanied by leaks of sensitive information from the EU and Nato environment towards Moscow.
To what extent is this a normal level of communication?
Hungary has crossed all imaginable lines here. If it is so keen to maintain above-standard relations with Russia, the only question is why, with such positions, it continues to remain in the Euro-Atlantic community.
It is clear to everyone that Russian policy is entirely hostile towards all of us.
When you were at the Czech interior ministry, where you served as director-general for the internal security of the state, did you have information that the Hungarians might be passing information to the Kremlin? Former Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavský said yesterday that reports had reached him that the Hungarian minister was being wiretapped.
I was not the recipient of the same information as the ministers of the Czech government. Therefore I cannot comment on this wiretap.
Under what circumstances can intelligence services wiretap foreign ministers?
Such a power is defined differently in law in each country, although two fundamental facts generally apply.
First, a government minister is, with rare exceptions, not fully immune to the possible use of wiretaps. And second, this always happens in absolutely exceptional cases and only when a number of legal conditions are met.
In Czechia, a minister may be wiretapped only with a court’s approval, and the principle of necessity in matters of safeguarding state security must be fulfilled.
What are legitimate grounds for a wiretap?
Criminal offences such as treason, espionage, terrorism, endangering the constitutional order, and other serious security threats. In some European countries, for example in the United Kingdom, it may even be necessary for two authorities to approve a wiretap. And in some Scandinavian countries this tool is used only very rarely.
Major international investigative reporting brought, among other things, a recording of a phone call between Lavrov and Szijjártó from 30 August 2024, in which the Russian minister asked his Hungarian counterpart to try to have the sister of oligarch Alisher Usmanov removed from an already valid package of anti-Russian sanctions. Seven months later, this indeed happened.
Szijjártó was also said to have asked his Russian partners for evidence of how the removal of certain entities – for example banks – could help Hungarian interests, so that he could then present this to partners in the EU.
Who in Brussels has the authority to wiretap the foreign minister of one of the member states?
If I am not mistaken, there is no authority in Brussels that has such a power. A minister can be wiretapped only within the framework of the legislation of each member state.
So which service could have done it?
It is speculation, but the Hungarian service itself could easily have been wiretapping him. I am not aware of any other.
Under what circumstances do secret services decide to share some information with journalists? What is their motivation?