Lithuania warned in 2019 that Hungary posed NATO and EU leak risk, Poland says
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Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto reportedly briefed his Russian counterpart during breaks at European Union meetings.
PHOTO: AFP
- Polish PM Tusk said Lithuania flagged Hungary as a NATO security risk in 2019 over suspected information leaks to Moscow.
- Hungarian FM Szijjarto admitted to consulting with Russia, among others, before/after EU meetings, calling it "perfectly natural".
- Concerns resurfaced in 2024, with a NATO member alleging Hungary shared alliance intel with Moscow; Hungary probes alleged wiretapping.
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WARSAW – Lithuania warned years ago that Hungarian officials posed a security risk within NATO, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on March 24, after a report that confidential information was being passed to Russia.
Hungary has maintained warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government despite the Ukraine war, often dissenting from the European Union’s pro-Kyiv policies.
Mr Tusk said information had come “from various places for a long time” about leaks to Moscow from closed‑door meetings of the European bloc and suspicions that information from the trans‑Atlantic military alliance was also being passed on.
“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 would pass on information of the highest confidentiality to Moscow,” Mr Tusk told reporters before a government meeting.
According to The Washington Post at the weekend, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had briefed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during breaks at EU meetings.
Mr Szijjarto initially dismissed that as “fake news”.
But in a video posted on X by a government spokesperson on March 24, he acknowledged that he consulted with non-EU countries before or after meetings of the bloc’s foreign ministers, including the Russians, Americans, Turks and Israelis, adding that this was “perfectly natural”.
Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry and a Hungarian government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Mr Tusk’s remarks.
“We don’t comment on individual remarks by allied officials,” added a NATO official.
‘Guesses’, says Lithuania
Former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, speaking on March 23 to the national broadcaster, said that in 2024 a NATO member state raised similar concerns – which he described as “guesses” – that Hungarian representatives were passing information from alliance meetings to Moscow.
“When we were preparing for the 2023 Vilnius summit, in the meetings we tried to not include Hungarian representatives, especially those where sensitive questions were discussed,” he added, referring to a NATO summit.
Mr Vytautas Leskevicius, Lithuania’s ambassador to NATO between 2015 and 2020, told Reuters he had no recollection of Hungary’s exclusion being sought as Mr Tusk said.
Moscow has not commented on the furore, although it frequently accuses the West of smearing it with false accusations.
Adding to the controversy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has ordered a probe into what he called wiretapping of his foreign minister.
In its report, The Washington Post cited an unidentified European security official as saying that Mr Szijjarto used to call Mr Lavrov regularly with “live reports” of EU meetings. REUTERS
