In July 2024, reports appeared in the media and social networks that they tried to blow up the Prime Minister of Hungary before his trip to Moscow. A Ukrainian refugee was allegedly chosen as the perpetrator of the murder, and an audio recording of intercepted negotiations became evidence of Kyiv’s involvement in planning the assassination. We have verified the accuracy of this news.
Publications that Hungarian intelligence services allegedly prevented an assassination attempt on the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orban appeared on RuNet on July 15. In the Telegram channel of TV presenter Ruslan Ostashko (99,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) the news was retold like this: “According to the Demokrata news agency, they wanted to blow up the Hungarian prime minister in his car on the way to the airport before his flight to Moscow (Orban arrived in the Russian capital July 5, although some authors mistakenly write about the previous day. — Approx. ed.). The intelligence services intercepted a conversation between the alleged perpetrator and a curator from Ukraine. It is reported that one of the criminals was a refugee from Ternopil who had been living in Hungary for the last two years.” Later foiled assassination attempt on Orbán called one of the main events of the day according to the Ostashko channel (91,000 views).
Similar posts appeared in Telegram channels “Uncle Slava"(180,000 views), "Voblya•news"(121,000), "Righteous Napalm"(90,000), "Khazin"(86,000), "Reports and analytics of SVO (reserve)"(73,000), "Talipov 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞"(65,000), "Ramsay" (57,000) and "Coachman"(13,000, post deleted), as well as in public pages on VKontakte (examples here, here, here And here). Among the media, the newspapers reported about the allegedly prevented assassination attempt.Arguments and facts" And "Moskovsky Komsomolets"
The authors of many of the above publications refer to the Hungarian publication Demokrata. On July 14, a note about the assassination attempt on Orban was published on demokrata.net. The article, citing an unnamed source in Hungarian intelligence, reported that intelligence services prevented an assassination attempt on Orban in Budapest. According to the alleged informant, a Ukrainian refugee living in Hungary was supposed to plant an explosive device in the politician’s car, and it was planned to remotely detonate the bomb the next morning, when the head of the Hungarian government was supposed to go to the airport. It is clarified that Ukrainian intelligence could have supervised the failed terrorist attack. According to the source, after the foiled assassination attempt, representatives of the Hungarian and Ukrainian special services held a telephone conversation, during which the Ukrainian side categorically rejected all accusations against them. The text also given quote: “We will not give in to fear, but will remain steadfast in our faith and stand against evil.”
The publication is accompanied by an excerpt from a conversation that allegedly took place between the customer and the perpetrator of the assassination attempt. In the audio recording below, the voices of two men speaking Ukrainian are heard:
- Well, are you ready?
- Certainly. I'm waiting for the command.
- Yes, look. So we've had some minor changes, so we'll start earlier.
- Why earlier?
“Soon this [word bleeped] will fly to Raska.” Well, obviously, we need to speed up a little.
- Um... [inaudible].
— According to our friends, he plans to fly to Putin on July 5. So we will work in the morning. Moreover, while he is in Kyiv (Orban arrived to the capital of Ukraine on July 2. — Approx. ed.), we can prepare calmly.
— And the coordinates change too, right?
- Well, of course, so. It will be near Freedom Square. You will install the firecracker as planned. Activation by timer will be - well, you know. Then you get rid of everything and get out of Nyugati [station] and out of town.
In Hungary from end last century, a conservative political weekly newspaper, Magyar Demokrata (“Hungarian Democrat”), was published. Her website - demokrata.hu, while the resource referred to by many Russian media is located in the .net domain zone. By data specialized services, the website demokrata.net was registered July 12, 2024 - just a few days before news of a planned assassination attempt on Orbán spreads widely. Moreover, this domain name was previously used by other editors. For example, in the 2010s demokrata.net was a student magazine website Democracy Akademia, and in the early 2020s - news website about life in Hungary (its design was different from the current one).
At the time of writing this analysis, demokrata.net is no longer functioning, but on the Internet remained saved copies of several pages. They may give the impression that this is actually the website of the weekly Magyar Demokrata, since it is exactly the same as the real one: the same design, logo and fonts are used. Moreover, most links to main page demokrata.net leads to the site demokrata.hu, and the only material whose address indicates the .net domain zone is news about the assassination attempt on Orban. On the real newspaper website there is a similar note No.
The authors of the fake site were exposed with several inaccuracies. So, for some reason, the news about the assassination attempt on the Hungarian Prime Minister in Budapest published in section Vilag (“World”), although it would be more logical to place the material in the section Magyarország ("Hungary"). At the end of the note indicated the “Victor Orbán” tag, which opens the page when clicked demokrata.net/cimke/donald-trump. The fact is that the fake page was based on news about a real assassination attempt on Donald Trump, published on demokrata.hu on July 14. The authors of the fake site did not even change the meta description of the article and the cover, as a result of which the news snippet about the assassination attempt on Orban shows a photo of Trump after the attack and shows quote former US President: “Only God prevented the unthinkable.” Moreover, the phrase “We will not give in to fear, but will remain steadfast in our faith and stand against evil” is also words Trump, remaining from original Magyar Demokrata material. “Checked” has already encountered similar errors when sorted it out fake NATO website.
As for the allegedly intercepted negotiations between a Ukrainian refugee in Budapest and his curator in Kyiv, the recording was posted on YouTube and, according to the saved copies fake site, was already unavailable at the time of archiving, since the account that published the video was deleted. By using tools according to the definition of AI content from the Hive company, “Verified” studied the accessible version of the audio recording that was distributed by Russian resources. The analysis showed that with almost a probability close to 100%, the recording was created using neural networks.
On the evening of July 15, RIA Novosti agency led commentary by András Bencsik, editor-in-chief of the publication Magyar Demokrata, on whose behalf the news about the planned assassination attempt on Orbán was disseminated. He stated that the newspaper did not publish such materials. “This is absolutely fake news. The Demokrata.net page looks suspicious, it is some kind of fake, fake. There was no assassination attempt,” Bencik said. Newspapers "Arguments and facts" And "Moskovsky Komsomolets“soon released notes refuting their materials. Edition "FederalPress“acted differently - in the middle of the text with the heading “Kyiv was preparing an assassination attempt on Orban before his flight to Moscow” it says (spelling preserved): “It later turned out that this information is unreliable.”
Thus, the Hungarian newspaper did not report that the intelligence services prevented an assassination attempt on Orban organized by Ukrainian intelligence. The primary source of this news is a website disguised as a publication that actually exists in Hungary. The evidence presented on it is not confirmed by other sources and was falsified. The earliest mention of a fake in Russian “Verified” was found in the Telegram channel “Freshness"(83,000 views), where a post about the failed assassination attempt on Orban was published on July 15 at 20:54 Moscow time. Previously this channel was caught in the spread of dozens of fakes.
Cover photo: collage demokrata.net
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