Hungary’s foreign minister privately shared sensitive European Union discussions with Russia and worked with Moscow to try to remove sanctioned Russian individuals, banks, and companies from EU blacklists, according to an investigation by The Insider and its media partners. 

The report, based on leaked transcripts and audio recordings, found that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on an August 30, 2024 call that Hungary, together with Slovakia, would submit a proposal to the EU seeking the delisting of Gulbahor Ismailova, the sister of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. 

Lavrov said he was calling at Usmanov’s request, and Szijjártó responded that Budapest and Bratislava would “do our best” to get her removed. Ismailova was taken off the EU sanctions list seven months later, according to The Insider. 

The leaked calls show that, between 2023 and 2025, Szijjártó passed along details of confidential European deliberations that would have been of strategic value to the Kremlin. In one example cited by the report, Szijjártó briefed Lavrov on internal exchanges at an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, including remarks by then-Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. Landsbergis told the outlet he could verify the exchange described in the report. 

In a separate conversation, Szijjártó told Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin on June 30, 2025 that he was trying to block or dilute the EU’s 18th sanctions package, including measures aimed at Russia’s shadow oil fleet and certain banks. The report quoted Szijjártó as saying he had already removed dozens of entities from a proposed sanctions list and was seeking arguments from Russian officials that could help him justify further carve-outs as being in Hungary’s interest. 

The leaked material was obtained and confirmed by a consortium comprising The Insider, VSquare, FRONTSTORY, Delfi Estonia and the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak. It said the authenticity of the audio was also reviewed with Cauth.AI and members of WITNESS’s Deepfake Rapid Response Force. 

The report provides evidence for long-held suspicions among European diplomats that Hungary and Slovakia had been leaking internal sanctions discussions to Moscow while using the EU’s unanimity rules to press for the removal of Kremlin-linked figures from sanctions lists, The Insider said. 

The news outlet described Hungary’s role as part of a broader pattern of interference in EU sanctions policy that began shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and later expanded into a coordinated effort with Slovakia. 

Read more at The Insider