Hungary is set to hold parliamentary elections on April 12, and the country’s future depends on their outcome. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose Fidesz party has ruled in an increasingly authoritarian manner since returning to power in 2010, looks set to be beaten at the polls by Péter Magyar’s centrist, democratic Tisza party. Of course, Orbán is also known to be a close ally of Vladimir Putin’s — one who regularly blocks EU sanctions against Russia and stymies financial aid to Ukraine. For Putin, Hungary is a key player in Russia’s confrontation with the West, and the Kremlin clearly has no intention of letting the parliamentary elections simply run their course. Unsurprisingly, The Insider discovered that several of the propagandists and intelligence officers working undercover as “diplomats” at the Russian Embassy in Budapest are actively involved in the campaign.
According to a source at the Russian Embassy in Budapest who spoke with The Insider, two individuals are directly responsible for assisting Orbán in his upcoming election. On the intelligence front, there is Naval Attaché Colonel Alexei Zarudnev (who is assigned to the GRU headquarters on Khoroshevskoye Shosse in Moscow, Military Unit 45807). And for relations with the local press and public relations, there is Minister Counselor Tigran Garibyan.
Colonel Zarudnev was born in 1977 in the city of Volzhsk in Russia’s Volgograd Region. He began his service in the GRU’s 232nd Separate Special-Purpose Radio Battalion (Military Unit 30734), located in the city of Ostrogozhsk in the Voronezh Region. The unit’s personnel engaged in electronic intelligence and supplied intercepted data to the General Staff. In 2011, he enrolled in the Frunze Military Academy, and enforcement orders from Russia’s Federal Bailiff Service regarding loan debts and traffic fines were sent to his address at the officers’ dormitory, address 4 Devichye Pole Lane. After graduating from the academy, Zarudnev successfully passed tests and special screenings before enrolling in the 2nd Faculty of Agent-Operational Intelligence at the Military-Diplomatic Academy (MDA), which trains officers for service in military attaché offices. As shown by flight records, Zarudnev began flying regularly to Hungary starting in 2015.
Over the course of 10 years of espionage, Zarudnev has built up a large network of agents within the Hungarian army and intelligence services, as well as among politicians and public figures. A source from the GRU shared some details with The Insider about the resident agent’s life in Budapest:
“As far as I know, Alexei Alexandrovich has very good operational results in this country, and they value him at Khoroshevka [GRU headquarters]. I think that if Orbán wins, Zarudnev will be promoted to general — even if he had a very hard time learning Hungarian. Misha Zhevagin from our residency in Hungary tutored him, and they were, as they say, thick as thieves. They would often gather over a cup of tea and sing ‘And on his chest shone a medal for the city of Budapest.’ Unfortunately, Misha messed up somewhere along the line and was transferred to Kyrgyzstan as an advisor to the ambassador.”
Military Attaché Zarudnev is often seen at official events at the Russian Embassy — laying wreaths at the graves of Soviet soldiers and greeting holiday guests alongside Ambassador Yevgeny Stanislavov. He is also involved in restoring military burial sites, building ties with Hungarian officials and military personnel in the process.
Among the local activists who regularly attend events featuring Colonel Zarudnev are the leader of the “Hungarian Circle of Peace” Endre Shimo, who promotes pro-Kremlin narratives. Others include the head of the Hungarian League of Anti-Fascists, Tamás Hirschler, as well as the former Hungarian ambassador to Russia, György Gilyán.
The latter heads the “Hungary-Russia” Society for Culture and Friendship and participates in the work of the “Russian World” Foundation, led by Vyacheslav Nikonov, the grandson of Stalin’s People’s Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov and the leader of the group of Duma deputies that recently visited Washington. On top of everything else, Gilyán visits Russia as a foreign observer for various elections, noting their “high level of organization and transparency.”
Among the other “friends of the Kremlin,” it is worth noting the head of the local branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (IOPS), Tamás Serbin, and his deputy, Mikhail Shubik, who frequently fly to Russia and report to IOPS head Sergei Stepashin (Russia’s former prime minister and the head of the FSB from 1994 to 1995) on the work they have done.
Meanwhile, as The Insider has discovered, the Zarudnev family has its own skeletons in the closet. In 2009, Colonel Zarudnev’s wife Natalia was listed on Russia’s federal wanted list under two counts of criminal activity: “giving false testimony” and “commercial bribery” (as part of criminal case No. 26451).
The case was initiated by the Tambov Regional Department of Internal Affairs, but it was not possible to ascertain the details. Zarudneva previously worked at Giprozdrav-Region LLC, the Stimul Charitable Society for the Disabled, and Moscow School No. 1409. She is now assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As for how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ HR department failed to notice these details, one can only speculate.
Zarudneva’s deputy, GRU Major Vadim Yurchenko (who also graduated from the 2nd Faculty of the Military Academy) is also involved in the campaign. He oversees veterans’ organizations in Hungary and is a frequent guest at the Russian-language “Alphabet” school in Budapest. Yurchenko hands out St. George’s ribbons to children and tells them how bravely Russian soldiers are fighting the “Nazis” in Ukraine. The school receives its funding from the “Alfavit” Foundation, which is headed by one Rita Khasanova, a native of Kazan.
Sergei Lelyuk, the Russian Federation’s trade representative in Hungary, also seems to have been brought into the “election race.” Colonel Lelyuk is actually a career officer in the GRU, beginning his service in the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (Military Unit 64176). After graduating from the Military Academy, Lelyuk was sent to Switzerland, then transferred to Budapest as a trade representative. His phone records are full of numbers belonging to other such “trade representatives,” and he himself is listed in his colleagues’ phones as “Sergei Crypto.”
The Insider examined Colonel Zarudnev’s phone records and discovered the numbers of career GRU officers from Military Unit 45807 (i.e. those spying under diplomatic cover at other Russian embassies). The list includes the number of Tigran Garibyan, Minister Counselor at the Russian Embassy in Budapest. He is the son-in-law of the late Viktor Zimin, a long-time head of the Republic of Khakassia who earned the nickname “the Kremlin’s chief huntsman.”
In Khakassia, Zimin built the elite “Karatash” resort, which was closed to outsiders and nicknamed “Disneyland” by locals. Putin, along with an entourage that might include former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin, ex-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and various governors, MPs, and intelligence generals, would come to “Disneyland” to hunt, grill meat, and relax in the sauna. Important state matters and personnel appointments were discussed over vodka in the steam room.
Putin, Alexei Dyumin, Sergei Shoigu, and various governors, MPs, and intelligence generals would all come to “Disneyland” to hunt, grill meat, and relax in the sauna
Thanks to his father-in-law’s connections, Garibyan was admitted to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), and after graduation, he was placed in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2006, he has regularly flown to Budapest, and since 2019, he has consistently served as an interpreter during Putin’s negotiations with Orbán. In 2023, the “hunter’s father-in-law” was appointed Minister Counselor to the Russian diplomatic mission, becoming Putin’s “overseer” for Hungary.
“Thanks to his connections in the Kremlin, Tigran Levonovich is the top dog at the embassy, while Ambassador Stanislavov plays the role of a figurehead. Everyone at the embassy understands that if the opposition wins, Stanislavov will be made the scapegoat, and his long-standing friendship with Presidential Advisor [Yuri] Ushakov, with whom they worked at the UN, won’t help him,” a Foreign Ministry official told The Insider.
A recent article by The Washington Post reported that Garibyan is actively involved in the Kremlin’s campaign to support Orbán and his Fidesz party, instructing pro-government Hungarian journalists on how to convince voters that Orbán is the only candidate capable of defending Hungary’s sovereignty.
In his propaganda work, Garibyan relies on the experience of Ekaterina Nedzvetskaya, an expert on Hungary and the embassy's first secretary. She is the daughter of Valentin Nedzvetsky, a renowned literary scholar and Moscow State University professor who died in 2014. At the embassy, Nedzvetskaya monitors social media and local media outlets and promotes pro-Kremlin content.
Incidentally, Ekaterina's husband, 62-year-old Mikhail Kulyasov, is also in Budapest. Embassy staff call him “the most mysterious figure” and do not know what he does, but both Colonel Zarudnev and Garibyan appear to treat him with great respect. Kulyasov does not hold any official position at the diplomatic mission, yet he has been assigned a personal vehicle.
This is because, as The Insider has discovered, Kulyasov is a foreign intelligence officer and heads the SVR’s residency in Hungary. In 1993, he graduated from the SVR Academy (Military Unit 21247) and spent several years spying under the cover of a Russian trade representative in EU countries. After that, he was assigned to Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-owned intermediary for international trade in military and dual-use products.
Hungarian counterintelligence may have identified Kulyasov long ago, but it appears to have been barred from taking operational action against him.
Garibyan’s team also includes TASS correspondent Ivan Lebedev and VGTRK correspondent Denis Davydov, who broadcast reports about how the “courageous” Orban refused to take part in Europe’s wave of so-called anti-Russian hysteria. Both had previously worked in the United States before being reassigned to Budapest. In 2024, Putin awarded Lebedev the Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland,” Second Class, “for his major contribution to the development of Russian journalism.”
Davydov, another pro-Kremlin journalist, began his professional career in Kazan, then worked for the propaganda outlets Life.ru, the Mir TV channel, the Izvestia newspaper, and the Daily Storm internet portal. He directed the documentary “People of Alpha” about the FSB’s eponymous special forces section. He recently received an apartment near the GRU complex on Khoroshevskoye Avenue in Moscow.
