Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in 2023 to brief him on a debate among EU leaders over whether to open accession talks with Ukraine at a key summit in Brussels, according to one of the transcripts of leaked recordings published by several Hungarian investigative news outlets.
The transcript, stemming from a call recorded at an EU summit on 14 December 2023, reveals that Szijjártó stepped out of the meeting to call Lavrov and brief him on the state of negotiations. It also includes Lavrov reportedly saying: “Sometimes good-willed direct blackmailing is the best option.”
