Hungary's Orban orders probe into alleged wiretapping of minister over Russia links

By Krisztina Than

BUDAPEST, March 23 (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered a probe on Monday into what he called a wiretapping of his foreign minister as his government sought to deal with the fallout from a media report about its links to Russia before an April election.

Nationalist Orban, in power since 2010, faces his toughest reelection bid of the past 16 years on April 12 as the centre-right opposition Tisza party leads most polls with a wide margin.

"We are dealing with two serious issues: there is evidence that Hungary's Foreign Minister was wiretapped, and we also have indications of who may be behind it. This must be investigated immediately," Orban tweeted on Monday.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing a European security official, that Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had made regular calls during breaks at EU meetings for years to brief his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with "live reports on what's been discussed."

Szijjarto dismissed the report on Sunday as "fake news."

A government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether Szijjarto had informed Lavrov about the content of discussions at EU meetings.

An EU Commission spokesperson said the information about information-sharing with Russia was worrying and clarification from Hungary was expected.

WARM TIES WITH PUTIN

On Monday, a Hungarian conservative news outlet Mandiner published a separate report and sound file in which investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi talks with a source and says he gave two phone numbers that Szijjarto used for phone calls to "a state organ of an EU country."

Panyi on his Facebook page on Monday confirmed the conversation took place. He said he used the numbers to compare them with information received from the security service of a European country for an investigative piece into information transfer by Szijjarto to Russia.

Panyi told Reuters the government was using secret service methods to reveal information about source communication when he was investigating an issue that would be "unpleasant" for authorities.

Szijjarto said the Mandiner report was "shocking."

"It is astonishing that with the active cooperation of a Hungarian journalist one or more foreign intelligence services have wiretapped me," Szijjarto said in a video on Facebook.

Szijjarto has made frequent visits to Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022. On March 4 he met President Vladimir Putin to discuss oil supplies among other issues.

Orban has fostered warm ties with Putin despite the Ukraine war, and maintained Hungary's heavy reliance on Russian oil and gas. Last week Orban, citing a dispute with Kyiv over a war-damaged oil pipeline, blocked the implementation of an EU loan to Ukraine agreed back in December.