Russian state news agency twisted Hungarian Foreign Minister's words, spokesman says

"We reject any and all attempts aiming to dishonestly twist the Foreign Minister's words," Foreign Ministry spokesman Máté Paczolay told Telex after the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published an article claiming that Péter Szijjártó had identified NATO's mistake that led to the conflict in Ukraine.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister was in Russia again late last week, attending the International Gas Forum in St. Petersburg. During the visit, he gave an interview to the Russian state news agency. According to the RIA Novosti summary, Szijjártó said that the current situation could have been avoided if NATO had discussed a draft agreement on security guarantees with Russia in 2021.

He also said that he would have been happy if the dialogue had taken place, because then we might not be in the situation we are in now. According to the RIA Novosti article, the Hungarian Foreign Minister was referring to Russian demands from 2021 which would have involved NATO pulling back its infrastructure to the 1997 positions and banning Ukraine from NATO membership.

However, as Máté Paczolay wrote to Telex: Szijjártó was not talking specifically about the security guarantees formulated by Russia, but about the period immediately prior to the war, and it was in this context that he said that "real dialogue and real negotiations between the parties could have provided a chance to avoid war." As for the proposal from three years ago, he described it as irrelevant in the current situation.

Márton Tompos, chairman of the opposition party Momentum posted the video clip of Szijjártó with Hungarian subtitles and the comment:

"The Hungarian Foreign Minister is a Russian agent. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry is serving Russian interests. Hungary's NATO membership is in danger", Tompos wrote and called on Szijjártó to leave public life.

"According to Szijjártó, it is up for discussion with the Russians to have NATO withdraw its troops from Hungary. The treason continues", Ferenc Gyurcsány, the president of DK, (Demokratikus Koalíció) later reacted.