With polls predicting the defeat of the Hungarian prime minister, the Kremlin’s great ally within the EU, a unit of the Russian secret services is said to have proposed “staging an assassination attempt” to “fundamentally change the entire paradigm of the electoral campaign”. Kremlin talks about “disinformation” ahead of Hungary’s legislative elections, scheduled for April 12
Less than a month before the , the first in which Viktor Orbán is not ahead in the polls since he burst into the country’s politics, a unit of Russia’s foreign intelligence services (SVR) is concerned about the real chance that the current prime minister will not be returned to office, having suggested that a strategy known as “Game Changer” be used, involving “drastic action” that will rally the electorate around Orbán.
This “drastic action” would involve staging an assassination attempt on the current prime minister to help him win back voters, as based on an internal SVR report obtained and authenticated by a European intelligence agency and analyzed by the daily.
In the document, agents from that Russian intelligence unit suggest a way to “fundamentally change the entire paradigm of the electoral campaign”, through “staging an assassination attempt against Viktor Orbán”, Vladimir Putin’s great ally within the European Union (EU), who this week went back on his commitment not to block the approval of a 90 billion euro European loan to Ukraine.
“An incident like this will shift the perception of the campaign from the rational scope of socioeconomic issues to an emotional scope, where the main themes will become the security of the State and the stability and defense of the political system,” the agents wrote in the report in question, which according to the Washington Post was prepared for the SVR’s main political influence operations unit, the MS Directorate, or Department of Active Measures.
This change from the so-called rational sphere to the emotional sphere was what, in 2024, also helped with the election of Donald Trump, the current president of the USA, who was the target of an alleged assassination attempt during that year’s presidential campaign – which led to a huge increase in voting intentions, ultimately contributing to him defeating his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.
With interests at stake, Moscow does not comment on report
The Prime Minister of Hungary, whose popularity continues to decline due to the country’s weak economic performance, has not suffered any physical attack so far – “but the mere suggestion of an attempt on Orbán’s life highlights how important Moscow’s interests are in the Hungarian election race”, highlights the North American daily.
The latest polls show that Péter Magyar, Orbán’s former ally turned rival more than a year ago, remains ahead of the prime minister and his Fidesz party – with opinion polls figuring in the Russian secret agents’ report. “A majority (52.3%) is dissatisfied with the situation in the country; dissatisfaction prevails not only in cities, but also in rural areas (50.8%), where traditionally the position of the governing party Fidesz is strong.”
Polls predict victory for Péter Magyar, a former ally of Orbán who left Fidesz more than a year ago to join Tisza, in protest against a corruption scandal involving figures in the current government. photo Boglarka Bodnar/MTI via AP
Orbán’s spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, did not respond to a Washington Post request for comment on the SVR report, Russia’s alleged interference in Hungarian legislative elections or the prime minister’s relationship with Moscow. It is not certain whether the SVR agents’ proposal was analyzed by the Russian government. Contacted by the newspaper, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to answer questions about the strategic document, simply saying that it was “another example of disinformation”; the SVR itself refused to comment on the matter.
In recent weeks, Orbán and Fidesz have increasingly tried to divert the electorate’s attention from economic problems to supposed external threats to the country’s security. This week, the Hungarian Prime Minister not only blocked the 90 billion loan to Kiev but also accused Ukraine of interrupting the supply of cheap Russian oil to Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory — despite the interruption having initially been caused by a Russian attack that hit that infrastructure.
In 2022, in Hungary’s last legislative elections, Orbán’s Fidesz won 54% of the votes, his two-thirds in Parliament. Now, about three weeks before the April 12 legislative elections, Orbán and Fidesz appear behind Magyar, candidate for Tisza, who presents himself as an anti-corruption reformer – and who, in the 2024 European elections, had already managed to win almost 30% of the votes.
