Putin deploys political strategists and intelligence to help keep Hungary's Orbán in power

Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has instructed a group of political strategists and Russian military intelligence to interfere in the parliamentary elections in Hungary in April in order to ensure that incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wins, investigative journalists working with European security services have reported.

The VSquare project has found that Putin instructed his first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko to handle operations concerning Hungary.

VSquare notes that Kiriyenko was behind Russia's interference campaign in the 2024 presidential election in Moldova, when Moscow supposedly used vote-buying networks, troll farms and local activists to shape public opinion against pro-Western President Maia Sandu.

A similar operation is now reportedly being prepared in Hungary together with Vadim Titov, head of the Russian administration's Directorate for Strategic Partnership and Cooperation.

Under the plan, Russia intends to station experts in social media manipulation at the Russian Embassy in Budapest. Three people have reportedly already received official and diplomatic passports, which would grant them a certain level of immunity.

The investigators also found that Kiriyenko has ties to some organisers of the election campaign of Orbán's Fidesz party.

VSquare's journalists note that Orbán's anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is providing additional cover for Russian disinformation campaigns, which tend to work best when a country's information ecosystem is already receptive to them.

Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hoped Orbán's party would lose the upcoming elections, which could then make it possible to normalise relations between Ukraine and Hungary.

Zelenskyy said earlier that he hopes "a certain person" in the EU (presumably Orbán) will stop blocking the €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, otherwise he might give that person's contact details to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.