With Hungary’s April 12 vote weeks away, Moscow has quietly mobilised its election interference machinery — this time to ensure its closest EU ally stays in office.
The Kremlin has launched a covert disinformation campaign aimed at securing Viktor Orbán’s re-election, according to reporting by the Financial Times based on people familiar with the matter. Vladimir Putin’s administration has endorsed a plan by the Social Design Agency — a Kremlin-linked media consultancy already under Western sanctions — to flood Hungarian social media with Russian-designed content posted by local influencers. The campaign, drawn up late last year, represents Moscow’s most direct known attempt to shape the outcome of a European election since the Doppelgänger operation was exposed in 2024.
How the operation works
According to an agency proposal seen by the FT, the campaign frames Orbán as the only leader capable of keeping Hungary sovereign and treating world leaders as equals, contrasting him as a “strong leader with global friends” against his main rival Péter Magyar, depicted as a “Brussels puppet with no outside support”. Magyar’s Tisza Party is currently ahead in opinion polls ahead of the April 12 parliamentary election, making this the most competitive contest Orbán has faced in his 16 years in power.
The plan calls for “information attacks” targeting Magyar, portraying Tisza as riven with “incompetence, division and secret agendas” and painting him as a tool of the EU. It also aims to focus attention on controversial party members and depict Magyar as a plaything of Brussels — while simultaneously positioning Orbán as a key partner of Donald Trump, showcasing their personal ties and framing the US president as Hungary’s best guarantee of security and economic stability.
Crucially, the campaign is designed to look entirely organic. Russian-produced memes, infographics, videos, and stories are tailored specifically to Hungarian audiences and distributed through go-betweens rather than through any direct contact with the Hungarian government. The Social Design Agency began reviewing Hungarian news and think-tank reports in February, targeting around 50 pro-Orbán figures and 30 opposition figures as potential channels for its content. “While interfering in election narratives, one should take into account that direct support from Russia could have the opposite effect,” the proposal states — reflecting Moscow’s awareness that overt interference could backfire against Orbán.
The operation is likely overseen by Sergei Kirienko, Putin’s powerful deputy chief of staff, who has previously directed similar campaigns in Moldova and other countries. According to VSquare, three officers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency have been posted to the Russian embassy in Budapest in connection with the effort. Magyar, who had previously avoided antagonising Russia directly, responded by calling for their removal – echoing the spirit of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Communist uprising with the words “Russians, go home.”
Social Design Agency’s track record
The Social Design Agency is not a new actor in the European information space. The US, UK, and several other Western countries sanctioned the agency and its senior leadership in 2024 for running the Doppelgänger campaign — an extensive operation that deployed fake news websites, AI-generated deepfakes, and coordinated social media accounts to stoke anti-Ukrainian sentiment across Europe. The scale and sophistication of that campaign set a new benchmark for Russian influence operations targeting democratic elections in EU member states.
As Insight News Media has previously documented, coordinated pro-Kremlin narratives targeting Magyar have been circulating across European-language outlets for months — from Russian state media to Slovak, Dutch, and Czech fringe websites — consistently framing him as a foreign puppet whose rise is artificially manufactured. The same talking points appear across borders and languages: Magyar is a Brussels agent, his funding is suspicious, supporting him means war, and anyone who opposes Orbán is opposing Hungary itself.
Signs of the campaign’s reach are already visible. Anti-Ukraine narratives have spiked sharply on Hungarian social media in recent days. A story about Ukrainian nationals being detained in Hungary while transporting cash — only to be released shortly after — was accompanied by fake images of the alleged perpetrators and their supposed loot, published by Ripost.hu, a pro-Orbán tabloid. The Facebook post gathered 130,000 reactions within days, with an unusually high proportion coming from foreign users.
Denials from Budapest and Moscow
Both the Hungarian government and the Kremlin rejected the FT’s reporting outright. Orbán’s office dismissed it as a “leftwing fake accusation” and a “pitiful attempt to divert attention”, while Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the outlet was “most likely making mistaken conclusions based on a fake — unfortunately, this has often happened in recent years, even with serious publications.” Russia’s ambassador in Budapest, Evgeny Stanislavov, also denied any interference, saying Moscow only wanted to “ensure normal bilateral relations continue and develop mutually beneficial co-operation”.
