"After 34 years, Russia is once again attempting to directly interfere in Hungarian politics, openly seeking to influence the decisions of Hungarian voters," Magyar said in a Facebook post.
The leader of the opposition party Tisza, which according to current polls has a significant advantage over Orban's Fidesz, warned that Russian methods have returned to the Hungarian political space.
"The last Soviet soldier left our country in June 1991. Now their operatives have returned – sometimes covertly, sometimes openly. We know their methods: disinformation, threats, hackers, digital bot farms, smear campaigns and blackmail," Magyar said.
His reaction came after Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) accused the European Commission on Wednesday of preparing a change in the "Budapest regime."
The SVR statement states that the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is allegedly “seriously considering scenarios for regime change in Budapest” and sees the leader of the opposition party “Respect and Freedom” as the main candidate for the future prime minister.
Such claims from Moscow practically repeat Orbán's earlier accusations against Brussels. As early as October 2023, the Hungarian prime minister claimed that the European Union was trying to establish a "puppet government" in Budapest, calling on Hungarians to stand up to Brussels as they had stood up to the Soviet army in 1956.
The Hungarian therefore requested an urgent explanation from the Russian ambassador to Hungary. Evgenia Stanislavova.
"I demand an urgent explanation from the Russian ambassador to Hungary: On whose orders and for what exact purpose are they interfering in our internal affairs?" he said.
Politico reports that, according to an analysis of polls, Magyar's center-right Tisza party currently has an eight percentage point lead over the ruling right-wing Fidesz, which represents the most serious challenge to Orban's rule in the last fifteen years ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for next spring.
