Brussels Frustrated With Hungary Over Russian Visa Decision That Could Let In Spies

BUDAPEST -- Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hungary has stubbornly refused to join EU efforts to punish and isolate Moscow.

And that behavior was on full display earlier this week when reports emerged that Budapest would make it easier for nationals from Russia and Belarus -- which has aided its ally with the full-scale Ukraine invasion -- to enter the country. Many of those people were workers, Budapest claimed, needed to work on a nuclear power plant that Russia is helping Hungary to build.

But few were convinced by Hungary's expansion of its "national card" visa scheme, sparking a fresh spat between Brussels and Budapest. One senior European politician warned the expansion could lead to a fresh wave of Russian spies entering the European Union, after many were kicked out from European capitals in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Since the start of Russia's war, Hungary, led by its nationalist-conservative prime minister, Viktor Orban, has blocked, watered down, or delayed aid packages to Ukraine. Orban, long criticized for his friendly ties with Vladimir Putin, faced a fresh backlash earlier this month after traveling to Moscow to meet with the Russian president after a stop in Kyiv. With Hungary currently holding the EU's six-month rotating presidency, Orban cast the visit as a peace mission, but EU leaders made clear he did not represent them on his travels.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 5, in a visit that angered EU officials.

With Russia considered a "threat" to EU security, according to a European Commission spokesperson, the EU's executive branch said it will contact Hungarian officials regarding the new visa program, "to clarify the scope of this scheme and whether it falls under EU rules," Anitta Hipper, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, told Current Time.

What Are The Concerns?

Under the proposed scheme, Russians and Belarusians would largely forego any security background checks, and that has many worried.

"Their reasons related to the [nuclear power] plant may be somewhat valid. But what we can question is whether this legal construction was necessary to exclude them from security clearances," explained Daniel Hegedus, a senior fellow focusing on Central Europe, at the Washington, D.C.-based German Marshall Fund, in comments to RFE/RL.

Those security concerns were echoed by Manfred Weber, head of the center-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament, in a letter to European Council President Charles Michel, a copy of which was published by the Financial Times on July 30.

The "questionable" new rules "create grave loopholes for espionage activities...potentially allowing large numbers of Russians to enter Hungary with minimal supervision, posing a serious risk to national security," Weber said.

In a post on X on July 30, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs rejected what he characterized as Weber's "lies" as "absurd and hypocritical because it is precisely the Brussels institutions...that are doing everything in their power to ensure that Hungary is forced to dismantle its strict border protection and asylum system, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the country and thus into the European Union."

Kovacs did not comment directly on the controversial new immigration rules.

In July, Hungary published details of a new fast-track visa system for citizens of eight countries -- including Russia and Belarus -- to enter Hungary without security checks or other restrictions. Budapest has said many would be employed in the building of the Paks II nuclear power plant in central Hungary, which is being carried out by Russia's state nuclear giant Rosatom.

Under the new rules, when entering Hungary, Russian citizens will also be entering the EU and the border-control-free Schengen zone, which also includes non-EU members Norway and Switzerland, if they possess a valid visa and have no ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Rules on issuing working permits are a matter for each EU member state, and, despite Schengen's open borders, member countries are still allowed to deny entry for a number of reasons, including previous entry bans or if a person is considered a threat to public security or health.

The construction site of the Paks II nuclear power plant Hungary in September 2023

But Western sanctions in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine include a ban on Russian-owned airlines operating in EU airspace, making it more difficult for Russian nationals to travel to the EU.

Others question whether there is a need for any Russian technical know-how at the Paks nuclear power plant. In 2014, Orban and Putin signed a deal to build two more reactors at the site, but the project has long been dogged by delays.

The actual installation of nuclear technology -- the alleged reasons Russian and Belarusian experts would be required -- is not imminent, largely due to Rosatom's failure to fulfill EU safety requirements, explained Andras Racz, a Russian expert at Budapest's Corvinus University.

"It is completely incomprehensible why an unspecified number of Russians should be allowed into the Hungarian labor market," he told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service.

Why Now?

Some have noted Budapest's announcement came shortly after Orban returned from Moscow, suggesting it may have been finalized there by the Hungarian leader and Putin.

However, the German Marshall Fund's Hegedus suspects the deal was "in the pipeline for a while."

"Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meet on a bimonthly basis. So, there is a high-level of coordination between the two governments," Hegedus said, adding the timing of the announcement was likely not a coincidence.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, pictured in 2022, reportedly meet on a bimonthly basis.

"Hungary holding the EU's presidency offers them some protection. They can get by with all these provocations because other countries are reluctant to take any action against Hungary because it holds the rotating presidency. It would set a precedent if they did," Hegedus said.

Hungary has been suspected of being a backdoor for Russian spies in the past. A year ago, Washington pressured it to withdraw from the International Investment Bank, a Russian-controlled financial institution. The bank, which relocated its headquarters to Budapest from Moscow in 2019, was long viewed with suspicion as its Russian staff had diplomatic immunity.

Shortly after Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European capitals kicked out some 600 of its diplomats, about 400 of whom were believed to be spies.

"Hungary is now the locomotive of those who hate the European Union and are doing everything to destroy it from within. And our patience will run out sooner or later," Lithuanian EU parliamentarian and former Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene told Current Time on July 31.

Much of the Russian spy activity has returned, according to a February report by the Royal United Services Institute, a British-based defense think tank.

"The Europeans had a sense of security that the Russian spies are not there anymore, that their capabilities have been significantly curtailed. But the problem is they have not been. They are mightier than ever," Marina Miron, an analyst at King's College London's Department of War Studies, told VOA in March.

And now Hungary may be about to open the door to more Russian spies, suggested Hegedus.

"We should not be naive to believe Russia will not use the opportunity to bring in Russian intelligence agents."