Signs of Hungarian involvement in disinformation campaign launched by Russia

"Several Hungarian media outlets reported today on Zelensky's plans to carry out acts of sabotage in Romania and Poland and blame them on Russia," Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry wrote on Telegram on September 26.

Although the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson mentions "several Hungarian media outlets" in her post, she is actually referring to a single article published on the government-friendly Pestisrácok.hu, which she included a link to in her post. The article in question bears the title: The war in Ukraine: if you look at this map, you will no longer believe there is a stalemate! At the end of the article, the author, Tamás Magyar B., writes that the Ukrainian special services are making plans with the participation of the Ukrainian armed forces to attack and bomb major logistics hubs in Romania and Poland, which are used to transport foreign weapons to Ukraine.

Thus, the article in Pestisrácok is essentially claiming that Ukrainians will carry out acts of sabotage in the two above-mentioned Eastern European countries, which they will then blame on Russia. This is known as a false flag operation. A false flag operation is an activity in which a state, organization, or a group purposefully conducts an operation (such as an attack, an act of sabotage, or spreading disinformation) in a way that allows them to blame it on another party.

However, Tamás Magyar B., who regularly publishes Russian propaganda, did not mention anywhere in his article what the source of his information about the planned Ukrainian false flag operation was. All Tamás Magyar B. wrote regarding this was that "the wind has blown in some odd news on Telegram." However, even after extensive research, we found no trace of anyone writing about this anywhere, neither on Telegram nor elsewhere, prior to the publication of the Pestisrácok article.

This means that the original source of the information is Pestisrácok.hu. and after Tamás Magyar B.'s article—which contained no reference to the source—was picked up by several other Hungarian pro-government newspapers, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of planning to conduct false flag operations by citing Hungarian media outlets, and even referencing Tamás Magyar B.'s article.

All of this was spotted by Péter Buda, a former national security officer, who wrote about it in detail on his blog, emphasizing:

The spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of a false flag operation by citing an anonymous and unsourced – i.e., alleged – Telegram post mentioned by a Hungarian journalist.

As Buda pointed out, on the same day that the Pestisrácok.hu article was published and the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson cited it, a well-known Russian propaganda and disinformation account on X claimed that Hungarian intelligence services had informed Russia about the Ukrainians' plans for a false flag operation.

According to Péter Buda, this is not about Hungarian intelligence actually having informed the Russians about this, as the Russian propaganda site suggests. Because, if the Hungarian intelligence services had indeed passed on such information to them, then Moscow would not have made it public since, by doing so, they would prove that the intelligence services of NATO member Hungary are collaborating with the Russian services.

The process in which Pestisrácok.hu was involved, follows the classic scenario of Russian disinformation operations, which we can remember from Soviet times and KGB practices, Péter Buda's analysis points out.

"Such operations begin with the 'planting' of false information one wishes to disseminate. This planting is usually done by involving a recruited or friendly journalist or media platform where one need not worry about them attempting to verify the planted information they wish to disseminate. This is typically done by using a lesser-known, professionally unaccredited journalist or media outlet, given that it is less likely that better-known journalists and media outlets would be able to afford publishing unverified information. The mentioning of the information is then entrusted to a lower-ranking but relatively well-known politician or government official, or perhaps an analyst or researcher, whose statement is then picked up by the more serious press," wrote the expert.

It should not be overlooked that while Tamás Magyar B.'s controversial article appeared in Pestisrácok, he is also a regular contributor to the Russian propaganda websites oroszhirek.hu and Nemzeti Internetfigyelő.

Obviously, such a serious allegation cannot be based on the claims of a virtually unknown Hungarian-language paper and its author, especially when the author in question has cited an anonymous social media post as his source. The fact that the Russian spokesperson nevertheless considered it important to communicate this information clearly points to a Russian disinformation operation," concluded Péter Buda.

According to the expert, the only question that remains is whether the Russians intend to use this operation to pave the way for a false flag operation they are planning to conduct in a NATO member state, or whether their goal is simply to cause confusion and further damage Hungarian-Ukrainian relations.

Péter Buda further suggests that this confirms that the Russian intelligence service's recent meddling in Hungarian politics was no coincidence and clearly indicates that Moscow views Hungary as a disposable tool in its hybrid war against the West – and its actual war against Ukraine.

We reached out to the editorial office of Pestisrácok.hu and its editor-in-chief, Gergely Huth, and also sent questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. So far, we have not received a response from either party.

By the way, there’s been a similar Russian disinformation operation before in which the Kremlin referenced a Hungarian website. The website Hídfő.net, which at the time belonged to the Hungarian National Front led by István Győrkös from Bőny, who had killed a policeman, eventually fell under the influence of the Russian secret service. The site became known nationally in August 2014, when the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Hungary of supplying weapons, including T-72 tanks, to Ukraine – not a word of which was true. As their "source" at the time, the Russian Foreign Ministry referred to a rather unusual article in Hídfő, which, until then, had only been known among those in the far-right subculture. The website published three "reader photos" of Hungarian T-72 tanks near Nyíregyháza which were probably taken on 2 August of that year, with the involvement of the Russian military.