Erzsébet Gy. Németh told an online press conference that up until US Ambassador David Pressman’s announcement of sanctions concerning the Budapest-based International Investment Bank (IIB) earlier this month, the Orbán government “got scared” and revoked the diplomatic immunity of the bank’s employees and pulled out of the bank’s ownership. But it had allowed “Russian bankers who could be suspected of espionage” to move freely within Hungary and the European Union, she added.

“Viktor Orbán had to be aware that the Russian spies sent to Budapest by [Russian President] Vladimir Putin could have spied on our own NATO allies and European Union member states, but he did nothing about it,” Gy. Németh said.

She said that the prime minister’s “allowing the Russian spy bank to operate in Hungary” was “tantamount to betraying Hungary’s interests”.

Gy. Németh said it could be proven that the prime minister had been aware of the US warnings concerning the IIB as well as of the suspicions that the bank’s staff were engaging in espionage.

DK lawmaker Judit Földi Rácz said the fact that the US had repeatedly warned the Hungarian government about the threat posed by the IIB since 2019 made clear Orbán’s responsibility in the matter.

When the EU wanted to impose sanctions on the bank in the wake of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the Hungarian government tried to intervene, she said.

This, she insisted, proved that the “Russian spy bank protected by Viktor Orbán operated as an extended arm of Vladimir Putin” in Budapest.

Ruling Fidesz responded as saying that DK, led by Ferenc Gyurcsány, was “a pro-war” party which was becoming “more and more aggressive”.

DK and “the entire dollar left supports the war and they want to drag Hungary into it; this is what they are getting paid for by their foreign master”, Fidesz said in a statement.

“Paid in Soros dollars, they are mounting increasingly aggressive attacks against the prime minister because he supports peace and would not let Hungary be dragged into the war,” it said.


MTI photo: Attila Kovács