Orbán is no longer just a problematic EU member—he has emerged as a direct agent of the Kremlin, wielding bribery and institutions to destabilize the bloc from within. His strategic alignment with Moscow undermines EU solidarity, sanctions policy, and financial security—and demands urgent European scrutiny.
In recent years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has evolved from a Euroskeptic into a serious threat to the European Union—thanks to opaque deals, selective regulation, and citizenship manipulation. This is not mere diplomatic balancing or populist rhetoric; it is a systematic rollout of shadow financial schemes that undermine the EU’s financial security and its ability to resist foreign interference.
By obstructing anti-corruption reforms and vetoing key EU sanctions on Russian firms, Orbán transformed Hungary into a major conduit for sanctions evasion. He resisted beneficial‑ownership transparency initiatives, blocked anticorruption legislation, and repeatedly delayed sanctions decisions.
Since 2023, investigative journalists have uncovered dozens of shell companies in Hungary that provided logistics and insurance services to Russia’s “shadow fleet.” These opaque entities have ties to Kremlin-linked oligarchs such as Igor Sechin and Gennady Timchenko. OCCRP named lawyer Andrey Mochalin, who issued fraudulent P&I certificates to tankers transporting Russian oil, as well as Artem Kuznetsov, a former FSB operative who facilitated visits by “shadow diplomats” to Budapest to establish banking channels—some under the cover of diplomatic immunity or as part of International Investment Bank (IIB) projects.