New audio recording reveals Hungarian FM promising Lavrov assistance on sanctions

An investigative article published on Tuesday revealed details of another phone conversation between Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. The article notes that in recent years, the Hungarian Foreign Minister has repeatedly acted in the interests of the Kremlin at European Union meetings and consultations, and has made efforts to have sanctioned Russian individuals and entities removed from the EU sanctions list.

The transcript and audio recording of the conversation between Szijjártó and Lavrov, as well as Szijjártó’s conversations with other Russian government officials, were obtained and verified by a consortium of investigative news outlets including VSquare, FrontStory, Delfi Estonia, The Insider, and the Ján Kuciak Investigative Center.

According to the jointly authored article, barely an hour after Péter Szijjártó's arrival in Budapest from St. Petersburg on August 30, 2024, he received a phone call from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov told him that following his visit, he had been quoted by the entire Russian media, to which Szijjártó nervously asked if he had said anything wrong. “No, no, no. They just said that you are pragmatically fighting for your country’s interests,” Lavrov reassured Szijjártó.

The Russian Foreign Minister then turned to the real reason for his call, which was a request: an important and wealthy Russian oligarch, Alisher Usmanov wanted his sister, Gulbahor Ismailova removed from the EU's list of sanctioned individuals. According to the recording, Szijjártó promised Lavrov that he would help them with this matter.

“Look, I am calling on the request of Alisher and he just asked me to remind you that you were doing something about his sister,” Lavrov said.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Szijjártó answered. “The thing is the following, that together with the Slovaks we are submitting a proposal to the European Union to delist her. We will submit it next week and as the new review period is going to be started, it’s gonna be put on the agenda and we will do our best in order to get her off.”

Lavrov was satisfied and expressed his appreciation for Szijjártó"s “support and your fight for equality in all fields.” Once they had addressed the main purpose of the conversation, Lavrov and Szijjártó unanimously criticized EU countries supporting Ukraine and took aim at Josep Borrell, the European Union’s then High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Lavrov called Borrell his “greatest disappointment,” while Szijjártó sarcastically referred to him as the “European Biden.” Lavrov noted that Borrell had been “more reasonable” when he only represented Spain as its foreign minister. Before hanging up, Szijjártó spoke appreciatively of Gazprom’s new headquarters in St. Petersburg, which he had visited, and added: “I am always at your disposal.” Seven months later, Ismailova was removed from the EU sanctions list.

Another key claim in the article is that Péter Szijjártó also held close consultations on the sanctions with Pavel Sorokin, Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister. Sorokin studied in London and previously worked as a banker at Morgan Stanley; Western officials consider him Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “secret weapon” in mitigating the impact of sanctions.

The investigative outlets also obtained an audio recording of another conversation in which Szijjártó told Sorokin that he would do everything in his power to have the EU sanctions package targeting the Russian shadow fleet withdrawn. Russia has been trying to circumvent Western energy sanctions using these tankers, which are sailing under false flags. During another conversation, Szijjártó also offered to remove the Russian banks proposed for sanctions by the EU from the list. Szijjártó even asked the Russian deputy minister to provide him with arguments as to why this would be in Hungary’s interest.

During a call on June 30, 2025, Szijjártó complained to Sorokin that the EU had refused to show him the documents related to the planned sanctions against 2Rivers—a Dubai-based company trading in Russian oil. “[B]ecause they say that there is no clear Hungarian interest that they can identify, and therefore Hungary cannot legally ask them to be removed from the list,” Szijjártó said to Sorokin when he inquired about why Hungary was left out of the loop.

According to the EU, 2Rivers – formerly known as Coral Energy – is one of the key players in the scheme to sell Russian oil globally through a shadow fleet and conceal the origin of the oil, namely, that it comes from the Russian state-owned energy giant Rosneft, which is currently subject to U.S. sanctions. After Szijjártó reported that he had been unsuccessful in the case of 2Rivers, he shared details about the current status of the negotiations about the EU’s 18th sanctions package with Sorokin. Szijjártó told Sorokin that he is fighting against the whole package of sanctions and is trying to get as many Russian entities as possible removed from the list. “I’m doing my best to have it repealed. The thing is that I have already removed 72 [entities] from the list, but there were 128. I’m trying to continue, but I have to say that this is in the interest of Hungary,” Szijjártó said. It is not clear from the conversation exactly what 72 and 128 Russian entities Szijjártó was referring to.

“If they [Sorokin’s staff] can help me identify the direct and negative effects on Hungary, I would be very grateful,” he added, “because if I can show something like that, you would give me a completely different opportunity,” the Hungarian Foreign Minister added.

We have sent questions about the article's claims to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and will report any responses we receive.

After the article was published, Péter Szijjártó reacted on his Facebook page, writing: “It has been known for some time that foreign intelligence services – with the active cooperation of Hungarian journalists – have been listening in on my phone calls. Today, the wiretappers have made another huge ‘discovery’: they’ve proven that I say the same things in public as I do on the phone…Great job!”

According to Szijjártó, he has been saying for four years that the policy of sanctions is a failure and it is doing more harm to the EU than to Russia. “We have also made it clear countless times that we will never allow sanctions against individuals or companies that are important for the security of Hungary’s energy supply or for achieving peace, nor against those in whose case there is simply no reason or justification to be on the sanctions list. And we will continue to insist on this in the future,” he wrote. Szijjártó further commented that the “surveillance list” is incomplete because he regularly consults with foreign ministers from several other non-EU countries as well about the sanctions.

The Washington Post previously reported that Szijjártó regularly consults with Sergey Lavrov by phone during breaks in EU meetings to discuss developments there. Citing five EU diplomats and officials, Politico reported that EU decision-makers are essentially looking to exclude Hungary from sensitive negotiations because they fear the Hungarian government is leaking information to Russia.