Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó reportedly held regular phone calls with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during breaks at European Union meetings, feeding him real-time information on proceedings, as Budapest faces the latest backlash. That official’s words to the paper cut through any ambiguity: “Every single EU meeting for years has basically had Moscow behind the table.”
The European Commission responded with visible unease, and spokesperson Anitta Hipper declared that the reports were “greatly concerning” and that Budapest owed the bloc a clarification.
Péter Szijjártó rejected the account as “fake news” and “senseless conspiracy theories.” The Council of the EU, which hosts ministerial meetings, said it was assessing whether Szijjártó had breached any rules.
Budapest Has Long Been Moscow’s Ear
Since Russia’s full-scale military operation in Ukraine began in February 2022, Péter Szijjártó has made 16 official visits to Moscow, the most recent on 4 March, when he met President Vladimir Putin directly at the Kremlin.
The suspicions predate the alleged leak by years. Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told Politico that he had been warned as early as 2024 that the Hungarians were possibly passing information to the Kremlin, and that both he and his colleagues had limited the information discussed in Szijjártó’s presence.
At the NATO summit in Vilnius in 2023, the Budapest delegation was excluded from discussions of sensitive issues, and broader meetings were held in general terms so that the summit’s real substance could be discussed in a narrower circle. The structural accommodation of an unreliable member had already become standard practice long before the scandal reached the press.
Europe Reorganises Its Rooms
The EU responded to leaking fears by migrating its most sensitive conversations into smaller formats: the Weimar group of France, Germany and Poland; the Nordic-Baltic Eight; the Joint Expeditionary Force uniting ten northern European countries; and others.
One EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said concerns about information falling into Moscow’s hands are the reason why the bloc’s leaders are increasingly gathering in smaller formats instead of holding meetings with representatives of all 27 countries, stressing that disloyal member states are the reason for resolving European diplomatic matters in restricted groupings.
A diplomat told Politico bluntly that the situation “undermines trust, cooperation and the integrity of the European Union.” Brussels has opted for quiet exclusion over formal procedure, partly because Hungarian parliamentary elections on 12 April make any official response politically combustible for the bloc’s own cohesion.
Moscow Then Put Intelligence Up for Sale
The alleged Budapest-Lavrov channel operated as one arm of a broader strategy, and Moscow moved to monetise its own intelligence assets on a separate front simultaneously.
Russia offered to stop its intelligence-sharing with Iran in exchange for the United States suspending intelligence support to Ukraine, a proposal delivered in Miami by Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev to US President Donald Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Under the terms presented by Moscow, Russia would cease sharing sensitive intelligence with Tehran, including precise coordinates of US military facilities in the Middle East. The United States rejected the offer. One European Union diplomat described the Russian proposal as “outrageous.”
A Two-Front Strategy Built on Information
The two episodes connect along a single logic. Russia extracted EU intelligence through Budapest for years, accumulated leverage with Tehran, and offered to trade that leverage to Washington in exchange for American disengagement from Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reported that Moscow had supplied Tehran with satellite imagery and drone technology for strikes on US forces in the region.
Intelligence, in the Kremlin’s calculation, has become a commodity: accumulated through access to allied councils, deployed across theatres of conflict, and placed on the table as a bargaining chip in bilateral deals.
European officials viewed the Miami proposal as an attempt by Moscow to reshape the diplomatic landscape surrounding the Ukraine war and Middle East tensions simultaneously.
France Plugs the Gap, Europe Takes Note
French President Emmanuel Macron stated in January that two-thirds of military intelligence for Ukraine is now provided by France. Intelligence-sharing remains a last significant pillar of US support for Ukraine after the Trump administration cut most of its financial and military aid.
The Kremlin’s Miami gambit exploited exactly the space opened by American hesitancy, placing Washington in a bilateral negotiation while European partners learned of the offer through press reporting.
The very existence of such an offer raised concerns among European diplomats, who feared Moscow was attempting to drive a wedge between Europe and the United States at a critical moment for transatlantic relations.
Membership Without Accountability Has a Price
European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper stated that “a relationship of trust between member states and between them and the institutions is fundamental for the work of the EU.”
Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar told supporters with visible fury: “The fact that Hungary’s foreign minister, a close friend of Sergei Lavrov, is reporting to the Russians on every EU meeting almost minute by minute is outright treason.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote that the revelations “shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone,” adding: “We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time.”
The EU built its architecture on the principle of sincere cooperation among member states. Workarounds (smaller rooms, restricted document flows, informal exclusions) function as stopgaps, leaving intact the structural reality that membership, without enforceable accountability, extends a seat at the table to whomever holds it, and to whoever answers the phone during the recess.
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