President of Hungarian interpreters' association whose member mistranslated Putin's words resigns amidst escalating tensions

Hungarian interpreters have been the subject of considerable attention, especially one of their organizations, the Hungarian Association of Translators and Interpreters, ever since one of its members repeatedly mistranslated the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin during his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán incorrectly in Moscow.

Neither the interpreter in question nor the association has made a statement since the incident, but the voices within the association calling for a statement to be issued have been growing louder. We understand that a board meeting was convened on Monday on the issue, where the majority of the board voted in favor of releasing the statement, but the president, Veronika Vaspál, was against it and did not consent to the release. She then resigned from her post on Tuesday.

According to Telex's information, the highly qualified Hungarian interpreter who interpreted in Moscow and is considered an outstanding authority in her field, remains a member of the association, and no internal proceedings or investigation have been initiated against her, nor would this be justified according to expert opinions. According to our sources, the association plans to publish a statement following Veronika Vaspál's resignation, which may be released as early as Wednesday. We tried to reach Veronika Vaspál by phone, but were unable to do so before the publication of this article.

The Hungarian Prime Minister held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian capital on Friday. Ahead of the negotiations, Orbán and Putin spoke briefly in front of the cameras. Beyond the usual polite greetings, in this part of the talks, there could always be things said that predict the mood of the negotiations. Despite its significance, Orbán was given a rather superficial Hungarian translation of Putin's statement by the interpreter, who mistranslated almost the entire greeting of the Russian President. We detailed exactly what Putin said and how it sounded in Hungarian in this article.