Russia Supports Disinformation Campaign to Aid Orbán’s Re-Election Effort, Financial Times Reports

Russian intelligence officials have reportedly approved a covert plan to boost Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s election campaign next month, according to a Financial Times investigation published Wednesday.

The plan, drafted by the Kremlin-linked Social Design Agency, outlines a sophisticated social media campaign designed to appear as if it originates from Hungarian sources rather than Russian operatives. Documents reviewed by the Financial Times reveal strategies to spread pro-Orbán messages, memes, infographics and short videos across Hungarian social media platforms.

The campaign portrays Orbán, who has maintained closer ties with Moscow than other EU leaders, as Hungary’s sole defender against outside influence while painting his main rival, Péter Magyar, as a “Brussels puppet with no outside support.” According to the proposal, the operation would also include “information attacks” against Magyar and his Tisza party, characterizing them as plagued by “incompetence, division and secret agendas.”

Magyar’s relatively new political movement currently leads in opinion polls ahead of the April 12 parliamentary election. Politico’s Poll of Polls shows Tisza with approximately 48% support compared to 39% for Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party, a gap that has remained consistent since summer 2023.

The Social Design Agency, already sanctioned by Western governments for election interference, was identified by the U.S. Justice Department earlier this year as the operator behind “Doppelgänger,” a sophisticated disinformation operation that created fake news websites to spread pro-Russian narratives and undermine support for Ukraine.

Sources familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that the agency has deliberately avoided direct contact with the Hungarian government to prevent political fallout. Instead, the campaign would position Orbán as a key partner of former U.S. President Donald Trump, framing Trump as Hungary’s best hope for security and economic prosperity.

Both the Kremlin and Hungarian government have denied any interference. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report, telling the Financial Times: “You are most likely making mistaken conclusions based on a fake. Unfortunately, this has often happened in recent years. Even with serious publications.”

Magyar, however, recently accused Russia of election meddling, claiming Russian military intelligence officers had arrived in Budapest under diplomatic cover to influence the upcoming vote. Independent Hungarian outlet VSquare has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally tasked Kremlin deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko with ensuring Orbán’s electoral victory.

Sources cited by the Financial Times believe Russian operatives involved in the Hungarian influence campaign likely report to Kiriyenko, who has previously overseen similar operations targeting other countries.

The allegations come as Russia appears to be struggling with its international information operations. In a seemingly contradictory statement on Wednesday, Peskov lamented Russia’s diminishing propaganda capabilities during a conference at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.

“We are rapidly losing the toolkit for our propaganda work abroad,” Peskov said, according to the state-run TASS news agency. “We are dealing with hostile social networks that dominate across the CIS [group of former Soviet countries] and worldwide… We do not work in these environments, and we need to figure out how we will do this going forward.”

The reported influence campaign highlights ongoing concerns about Russian interference in democratic processes throughout Europe, particularly in Hungary, where Orbán’s government has maintained more cordial relations with Moscow than most EU members, even after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.