New Wiretap Of Sijjarto And Lavrov Conversations Published
- 9.04.2026, 12:51
Hungary's foreign minister sent EU documents to his Russian counterpart.
European journalists on April 8 published a new audio recording of a conversation between Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. It became clear from it that the former shared with the latter documents on Ukraine's accession to the EU.
This is according to the results of an investigation published on April 8 by a consortium of European publications Vsquare, FrontStory, Delfi Estonia, The Insider and the Jan Kuciak Center for Investigations (ICJK).
Among other things, the transcript revealed that Szijjártó offered Lavrov to forward EU documents through the Hungarian embassy in Moscow. The conversation took place on July 2, 2024, on the day of Viktor Orban's visit to Kiev.
"Lavrov: Look, I also wanted to call and clarify about the compromise that you reached with the European Union on opening negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. And there were reports that the language of national minorities played a decisive role.
Sijjarto: Absolutely. It was.
Lavrov: We are trying to get the exact document, but...
Sijjarto: I will send it to you. No problem."
It was unclear from the conversation which document was in question. A senior EU official told reporters that there was a 99 percent chance it was a framework document for negotiations that had by then been made public and was publicly available. A senior Western intelligence official suggested that Lavrov was testing the limits of Szijjarto's ability to provide information to Russia with such a request.
"Now we have proof - while Orban and Szijjarto were officially advocating for the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry colluded with Lavrov to advance the interests of the rights of the Russian minority in that country," the journalists said.
On the June 17 recording, Szijjártó boasted to Lavrov that he felt great after meeting with politicians in Brussels.
"Although they usually yell at me... In the end I always tell myself that at least I enjoyed myself," the Hungarian foreign minister said.
"Yes, you know, you know how to deal with them," Lavrov replied to him.
Siiarto then detailed to the Russian foreign minister his negotiations with the EU regarding Hungary's eleven points and "how to get back the rights we already had."
Lavrov, however, quickly brought the conversation back to the issue of Russians in Ukraine and how failure to meet the Kremlin's demands could slow or derail Ukraine's EU accession process.
Sijjarto responded by saying that respect for minority rights is a universal principle governing the Council of Europe - "today it is your minority and tomorrow it will be ours" - an answer that apparently pleased Lavrov, journalists said.