Bos notes the growing espionage in the Hungarian capital Budapest in several ways. “On my street, where the Russian embassy is located, I regularly saw a blinded car. And I also understand that there are more and more Russian diplomats there».
According to Bos, the lax attitude of the Hungarian authorities towards the presence of the Russian secret services is also characteristic of the permanent presence of a Russian international investment bank in the city. “It is really seen as a spy bank by the protesters and it was not closed down by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It is a Kremlin bank, which means that everyone who works there also has diplomatic immunity.
To trust
According to Bos, Orbán’s allowing all of this has everything to do with the fact that he is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He probably also suspects that those people aren’t looking for Hungary. Unfairly, because there have already been several attacks here, for example, on the computers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Of course it’s a NATO country, so the Russians get all kinds of secrets that way.’
According to Bos, Western diplomats say foreign intelligence services no longer want to cooperate with the Hungarians. “Because they just don’t know if they can trust them anymore.”
Angry
Hungary’s opposition parties now want Orbán to make a clear choice for Brussels or Moscow. “He’s really under enormous pressure, because it also leaked that attacks were being prepared from Budapest, for example, in the Czech Republic in 2014,” Bos said. ‘People are really, really upset about this.’