Hungary expels 10 Russian diplomats, the first public purge since 2018

Hungary on Tuesday, 8 September, ordered 10 members of the Russian diplomatic mission to leave the country, the first public expulsion of Russian diplomats from Budapest since 2018 and the largest such action the country has ever taken against Moscow.

Foreign Minister Anita Orban, who is not related to former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said Hungarian officials told Ambassador Evgeny Stanislavov that the 10 had engaged in activities in Hungary that are unacceptable for diplomats under the Vienna Convention. She added that the decision protects Hungary's security and sovereignty and does not imply breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia. Prime Minister Peter Magyar read the same text in parliament and said his Tisza government would defend the country's sovereignty.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the response would be harsh and painful. The ministry told Interfax and RIA Novosti that it would retaliate. It did not name Hungarian diplomats in Moscow or list other measures.

The change of government is the reason the expulsion is news. Viktor Orban left office in April after 16 years. Under him Hungary bought Russian oil and gas after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, slowed European Union sanctions and blocked a 90 billion euro EU loan to Kyiv. After February 2022 many EU states expelled dozens of Russian officials. Hungary expelled none. Until Tuesday it had not publicly sent Russian diplomats home in eight years.

Peter Magyar campaigned on ending that line. He has said Hungary's main alliances are the European Union and NATO and that trust lost under Viktor Orban has to be rebuilt. Anita Orban's statement is the first concrete security step that matches the campaign language. Reports of the minister's social-media post said the government accused the 10 of espionage. The formal text used the Vienna Convention formula rather than the word spy. In diplomatic practice those two phrases often describe the same file.

Hungarian newsrooms noted that no previous government had expelled this many Russian diplomats at once. They also asked a question the ministry has not answered: when did Hungarian services first conclude that the 10 were working outside their status? If the answer is years ago, the delay was political. If the answer is this summer, the new government is moving on fresh intelligence. Either way, Tuesday is the date the ambassador was told to send people home.

Retaliation is the next scheduled event. Moscow can declare an equal number of Hungarian diplomats persona non grata, shrink the embassy, or add economic pressure on remaining energy contracts. Hungary still takes Russian hydrocarbons under arrangements signed in the Orban years. Magyar has not said those contracts will be torn up. He has said the country will talk to Russia based on mutual respect and adherence to the rules. Expelling 10 people and keeping the gas flowing is a possible combination. It is also an unstable one if Zakharova's painful reply hits energy rather than diplomats.

For the European Union the expulsion is a signal that Budapest is no longer the automatic hold-out on Russia policy. That does not by itself release frozen funds or rewrite Hungary's veto record. It does change the count in the room when foreign ministers discuss sanctions roll-overs and military aid. A government that sends Russian officers home is harder to describe as Moscow's voice inside the Council.

The 10 names have not been published. They will appear, if they appear, on later visa lists and on the plaque of whoever replaces them. The fact that matters on 8 September is simpler. Hungary, for the first time in a decade, treated a group of Russian diplomats as people who had to leave.