Artur Sushkov, 36, a third secretary at the Russian Embassy in Budapest, left Hungary on May 4, 2026, together with his wife. Hungarian authorities had identified him as an undercover officer of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR. VSquare, citing several Hungarian government sources, reported the quiet expulsion on May 8. The Hungarian government and the Russian Embassy did not reply to its requests for comment.
Blocked in February
Hungary’s counterintelligence service had wanted him gone months earlier. A government source said the Orbán government rejected a proposal to send him home in February 2026. Russia was backing Orbán’s bid for reelection, and the government did not want a quarrel with Moscow in the middle of the campaign.
That changed after Orbán lost the parliamentary election on April 12. Péter Buda, a former counterintelligence officer, said such delays had happened before. “Based on this particular case, it is clear that the political leadership did not allow the intelligence services to carry out their duties properly,” he said. The operation against Sushkov was run by the Constitution Protection Office, known by its Hungarian acronym AH, with the security agency of a NATO country that has not been named.
Where he worked
Sushkov’s targets included the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA) and the John Lukacs Institute for Strategy and Politics at Ludovika University of Public Service, which trains Hungarian military, police and intelligence officers. VSquare noted that Balázs Orbán, no relation to Viktor, oversaw all of them. He was the prime minister’s political director and ran the failed campaign.
Sushkov first came to Hungary in 2019 and left in 2022. He returned on February 8, 2023, promoted from attaché to third secretary. At conferences and events run by MCC and HIIA, he sought out Hungarians with ties to government decision-makers and pressed them for off-the-record meetings.
A Hungarian source familiar with his work said he started the recruitment process with at least three people. One was a researcher with contacts at both HIIA and the John Lukacs Institute, whom he trained in covert communication and brought to secure meetings. He won that person over with expensive gifts, and made clear that real money would follow for information.
What he wanted ranged widely: gossip about government officials, updates on the Paks 2 nuclear plant project, the election campaign, foreign policy plans and, above all, Budapest’s relationship with Ukraine. He even asked for the Wi-Fi password to HIIA’s internal network.
The institutions respond
MCC said it sent no official invitations to Sushkov or any other Russian diplomat, though its open programs were open to anyone. HIIA said attendee lists showed him at two public panel discussions in 2024 and it had no sign he was in contact with its staff. The John Lukacs Institute said his name appears on no participant list and that its researchers reported suspicious diplomats to the authorities each time.
A Hungarian national security source described MCC as “like an open office”. The expulsion has not emptied the embassy. Officials from several NATO countries told VSquare that at least a dozen identified or suspected SVR officers are still posted there under diplomatic cover.
Sources
- The Think-Tank Spy: Russian Diplomat Infiltrating Orbán's Right-Wing Elite Quietly Expelled – VSquare.org
- Hungary quietly expels Russian spy who infiltrated institutions close to Orbán
- Hungary expels Russian spy embedded in pro-Orban circles, report says
