Orbán government publishes interrogation of opposition IT specialist over alleged Ukrainian recruitment attempt

The Hungarian government has released a video fragment of the interrogation of a former IT specialist from the opposition Tisza party and claimed he had admitted that Ukraine tried to recruit him, although no such admission appears in the recording.

Source: Hungarian newspaper 24.hu, as reported by European Pravda

Details: A nearly hour-long video of the interrogation of the former Tisza IT specialist was published on a government YouTube channel.

The 19-year-old man, referred to as Gundalf, said that after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine he had "deep sympathy" for civilians and therefore joined a community of specialists working to prevent Russian cyberattacks on Ukrainian IT systems. He added that he later stopped participating after the activity had "radicalised" and might supposedly have been directed against non-Russian targets that could indirectly harm Hungary.

Asked whether he had foreign contacts, Gundalf said he was studying information security engineering at a NATO-accredited cyber security centre in Estonia.

He also recalled visiting the Estonian embassy in Budapest but said he could not remember whom he spoke with there.

Another part of the video appears to have been recorded later, as indicated by the change of clothing. Gundalf said that after his last conversation with the investigator he had "thought about many things" and assumed he might have encountered a recruitment attempt.

In this context, he recalled a visit to Kyiv in 2023 for volunteer purposes, where a meeting was organised for members of the IT community.

The contact person was a man who introduced himself as Davydov. According to the IT specialist, he looked like a "stereotypical gangster". Davydov supposedly proposed that they join a team to help Ukraine counter cyberattacks. Gundalf assumed the man "wanted to involve" participants in something.

After the publication of the interrogation video, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the former Tisza IT specialist had admitted he was recruited by the Ukrainians.

Tisza leader Péter Magyar described this as an organised intelligence operation directed against his party.

"It concerns the story of a 19-year-old man who took part in NATO-accredited cyber security training and therefore also visited Estonia, a NATO member state. It turns out that even if there were recruitment attempts against him, he rejected them," he wrote.

Background: Earlier this week, Orbán accused Ukraine of "infiltrating spies" into the team of the opposition Tisza party and demanded they be "sent home".

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