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Hungary: Political Capital, Russia backs far-right groups

Hungarian research center. Influence in 3 more eastern countries

01 January, 19:13
(ANSA) - TRIESTE - The Russian government backs far-right groups in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, to covertly destabilize their domestic politics, Policy Research & Consulting Institute "Political Capital" said. A recent report from this Hungarian independent think thank is focused on paramilitary Hungarian National Front 1989 (Magyar Nemzeti Arcvonal 1989 or Mna in Hungarian): in late October, its leader István Györkös (76 years old), shot and killed a police officer during a firefight occurred in Böny, a village in western Hungary. Political Capital points out that "investigative journalists revealed that the neo-Nazi organization's radicalization was supported by Russian diplomats and intelligence as early as 2012". A dozen Mna members were arrested in the last weeks.

According to Political Capital, in Hungary the Kremlin supports and trains different far-right and euroasianist movements: Mna, Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement (Hvim), the paramilitary white supremacist Army of Outlaws (Betyársereg), and another paramilitary organization, the Wolves (Farkasok). The dossier reconstructs the creation of propaganda websites, often hosted on Russian servers, and refers to the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), a far-right party with 23 representatives in parliament. In Slovakia, Political Capital said, Russia also backs the Slovenski Branci, a paramilitary group that fought in Ukraine. The Polish intelligence is investigating far-right and far-left militants, which are considered close to Russian intelligence.

The report underlines: "The Kremlin is highly effective in infiltrating fringe parties and paramilitary organizations in the Cee which are easy to buy up or control. These pro-Russian organizations provide direct political or indirect propaganda legitimization of the Kremlin and its geopolitical goals".

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