Russian intelligence services reportedly proposed staging an assassination attempt against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to reinforce his popularity before April’s legislative elections, reported this Saturday Washington Post.
According to the North American newspaper, the proposal came from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and aimed to “fundamentally change” the electoral campaign, shifting the focus to issues of security and political stability.
The Washington Post is based on Russian reports obtained and authenticated by a European intelligence service to reach the conclusion that there was an intention to stage an assassination attempt on Viktor Orbán. “An incident of this type will shift the perception of the campaign from the rational scope of socioeconomic issues to an emotional plane”, refers in the document cited by the daily.
However, it is not clear to what extent this proposal was analyzed and considered by the Russian Government. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the reports as “disinformation”, while the SVR did not respond to questions raised by the newspaper.
According to European security officials cited by the newspaper, Russia has supported Viktor Orbán through campaigns on social media, promoting the idea that the Hungarian leader is the only one capable of defending the country’s sovereignty.
The initiative comes in a context of Orbán’s apparent drop in popularity in the polls, ahead of the April elections, in which his party, Fidesz, could be defeated by the conservative opponent Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza party.
This Saturday, in a speech in Budapest to ultraconservative leaders, at the opening of the Conservative Political Action Conference, Viktor Orbán accused the European Union and Ukraine of trying to influence the April 12 elections to change the Hungarian government.
