Hungary expelled ten Russian diplomats on Tuesday, declaring that they had acted in ways incompatible with their diplomatic status. The decision, announced by the government in Budapest, marks the first public expulsion of Russian envoys by Hungary since 2018 and signals a decisive break with the foreign policy pursued during Viktor Orban's 16 years in power.

A break with the Orban era

Orban was swept from office in April after a general election that ended his long dominance of Hungarian politics. Throughout his tenure he cultivated a close relationship with Vladimir Putin, keeping Hungary dependent on Russian oil and gas imports even after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While most European capitals expelled dozens of Russian diplomats in the months that followed, Budapest expelled none. The Hungarian government also used its veto to delay European Union sanctions packages and blocked a €90 billion EU loan intended to support Ukraine's war effort and reconstruction.

The new administration has moved quickly to distance itself from that record. Tuesday's expulsions were framed as a routine enforcement of diplomatic norms rather than a political gesture, but the symbolism is unmistakable. For the first time since the war began, Hungary has joined the majority of EU member states in treating Russian diplomatic personnel as a potential security risk.

Moscow's reaction

The Russian Foreign Ministry responded within hours. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state media that Moscow would retaliate and that its response would be "harsh and painful" for Hungary. She characterised the expulsions as the work of a "Russophobic lobby in Budapest", language that mirrors the rhetoric used against other European capitals that have reduced the size of Russian diplomatic missions since 2022.

Russia has a well-established pattern of symmetrical retaliation. When Germany, France, Italy and others expelled Russian diplomats in 2022, Moscow responded by ordering an equal number of their envoys to leave. The same calculus will almost certainly apply here: ten Hungarian diplomats in Moscow can expect to be declared persona non grata within days.

The diplomatic context

Diplomatic expulsions are a standard tool of statecraft, used to signal displeasure without severing relations. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations permits a receiving state to declare any member of a diplomatic mission persona non grata at any time, without having to explain its decision. Hungary's statement that the ten envoys had acted "in ways incompatible with their diplomatic status" is the conventional formula for alleged intelligence activity.

What is unusual is the timing. For four years Hungary stood apart from the coordinated European response to Russian intelligence operations on EU soil. The change suggests that Budapest's new leadership has decided that the political cost of remaining an outlier outweighs the benefits of maintaining Orban's privileged channel to the Kremlin.

Energy and sanctions legacy

Orban's Russia policy was anchored in energy. Hungary secured a long-term gas contract with Gazprom in 2021 and continued to receive Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which Budapest argued was exempt from EU embargoes because it arrived by pipeline rather than sea. That arrangement allowed Hungary to avoid the energy price shocks that hit other member states harder, but it also left the country exposed to accusations of financing the Russian war machine.

The new government has not yet announced plans to renegotiate the gas contract or to support a full pipeline embargo. Energy security remains a genuine constraint: Hungary has limited alternative supply routes and storage capacity. But the diplomatic expulsions suggest a willingness to accept friction with Moscow that Orban assiduously avoided.

What the new government says

Officials in Budapest were careful to insist that the expulsions do not amount to a rupture in bilateral relations. The foreign ministry stressed that diplomatic channels remain open and that Hungary continues to recognise Russia as an important neighbour. That positioning mirrors the approach taken by other central European governments, which have combined firm security measures with a pragmatic acknowledgement of geography and economic interdependence.

The distinction matters. A complete breakdown in relations would complicate consular services, cultural exchanges and the remaining energy contracts. It would also make Hungary an outlier in a different direction, isolating it from the pragmatic engagement that characterises EU-Russia relations at the technical level.

People mentioned

Organisations

Russian Foreign Ministry · European Union · Hungarian Government