We Are Not Paid Agents of Russia…
'We are not paid agents of Russia… we do it out of conviction.....'
There is a Jobbik activist, a young communist, a Russian convicted of vandalism and a neo-Nazi among the anonymous editors of one of the best known Russian propaganda pages of Facebook.
Moscow has assistants on both the far-right and the far-left. What’s more, their reach extends even higher: one active proponents of the cause had been a diplomat at the Foreign Ministry before 2013.
Koba lives in an Eastern Hungarian city and as a civilian he works at the local government, but in the online world he is the “editor in chief” of one the most important Hungarian pro-Kremlin online initiatives, the We stand with Russia (Kiállunk Oroszország Mellett) Facebook page.
Although this was also Stalin’s pseudonym in the Communist Party, the Hungarian Koba is a radical nationalist, a Jobbik activist and a committed monarchist, the proponent of the restoration of the Hungarian monarchy. The Facebook page has 24 thousand followers today. Just like the majority of the site’s former and current admins (administrators, handlers), Koba edits the page without revealing his real name.
A study found in last April that over ninety websites and blogs fitting into the concept of Russian information war were operating in Hungary at the time. In the majority of cases it is hard to decide whether they do it on their own or they are part of a larger disinformation network. No similar summary and investigation of Hungarian-language Facebook sites has been produced so far.
Therefore, discussions on the operation of the site, the views of the editors and their motivation with current or former editors of We stand with Russia in the past few months was very enlightening to us. Naturally, we also inquired about their contacts with the representatives of Russia or, if they do not have any, about critical points through which Russians are able to influence “useful idiots”.
From the far-right to the far-left: the team is ready
Koba founded We stand with Russia a few years ago together with an unknown figure with ties to Serbia, introducing himself with a Serbian name – although some editors of the site believe this name is only an alias. He later left the editorial team because of a conflict and then disappeared. Since then the admins have come and gone frequently, they quarreled and made peace with each other.
The site currently defines itself as “the Eurorealist circle of Hungarian friends of Russia” and recently it changed its name to I stand by my opinion (Kiállok a véleményem mellett) and then to We stand by the multipolar world order – We object to democracy export (Kiállunk a többpólusú világrend mellett – Elutasítjuk a demokráciaexportot).
Soon after the page was founded the self-defined Jobbik supporter recruited Máté Kovács, the deputy chief secretary of the anti-fascist, far-left Hungarian Youth Community Organization (Magyar Ifjúsági Közösség Szervezete) to be an editor of the site. Thus, from the very beginning it was obvious that the ideological roots of pro-Russian individuals supporting the occupation of Crimea and then the Russian intervention in Syria reach both the far-right to the far-left, the common point being their anti-West views.
But the team of We stand with Russia is not restricted to extremists. One former editor of the site, let’s call him Ernő, who joined the team in early 2014, was firmly considered to be a Fidesz supporter by other admins, although he says he is not a member of the party. “For a short time, I was an intern at a state institution, but that had nothing to do with the site”, he added.
Ernő told Index the site’s admins hide their real names partly because they feel they might be threatened. “Many could find such a politically committed site displeasing; thus, the editors would potentially endanger themselves. The topic and “mission” of our site was and still is highly divisive in Hungary. Even among my own friends’ opinions on the topic are extremely diverse”, he said and firmly asked us not to publish his real name.
In addition, we sat down to talk with an editor who works under his real name despite the fact that he worked for the Foreign Ministry for decades, up until 2013.
The propagandist who became disillusioned
The words of Ernő revealed he now regrets ever having been an admin of the page. “There is a reason why I am not proud of this nowadays. Since then the international environment has changed or at least we know more. What we saw in early 2014 was that a group came to power in Ukraine that viewed the rights and autonomy of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia with suspicion.
As Western powers stood behind the new government in Kiev and were hostile towards Hungary as well, e.g. because of the media law, Moscow seemed to be the only counterweight”, this is how he explains joining the site.
Later, Ernő broke up with the site, which he says is because he realised the Kremlin itself wants to gain influence in Europe.
What Ernő realised after some time has also been discussed in numerous articles and analyses. After the crisis erupted in Ukraine Russian propaganda became more prevalent, fake and forged news constitute a part of active measures used by Russian secret services. Today, several countries try to defend themselves against these practices. The Czech Republic established a new unit with 20 members who started working in January as a division within the Ministry of Interior to counter Russian propaganda.
Hungary is not planning to do such a thing, which is understandable in light of the fact that the government is rather supportive of and not averse to spreading Russian propaganda. Magyar Idők (Hungarian Times) and other pro-government news sites readily use fake Russian news, but elements of Russian propaganda, including views similar to that of Alexandr Dugin – find their way into Victor Orban’s speeches, either willingly or unwillingly.
The Russian Connection
Writing and dispensing Russian propaganda is coordinated through a centralized system, every element of it connects to the Kremlin’s policies and rhetoric consistently. The phenomenon is not new, they widely used similar tools in the Soviet Union as well. The fake news stories are usually generated by unrecognisable fake websites using anonymous sources with the hope that they make their way into mainstream media.
To Moscow it does not matter whether the sites serving their interests are operated by their own men or “useful idiots”, actually it is exactly anonymity that allows them to infiltrate web pages edited by “useful idiots” at some point.
There are Hungarian propaganda sites that are undoubtedly controlled by Moscow, including the portal Hidfő, which now runs under a Russian domain, established by Magyar Nemzeti Arcvonal (Hungarian National Front, MNA), the organisation of the murderer of a policeman, István Győrkös. Győrkös had an active relationship with the undercover agents of Russian military intelligence.
After it was founded, the MNA-run Hidfő posted extremist content. Then, Győrkös handed the site over to the Russians, who changed the website’s profile and today it explicitly focuses on disseminating Russian propaganda. Later it was revealed that a “journalist” of the site with deep knowledge of military affairs met Jobbik’s Márton Gyöngyösi twice.
Former editors of We stand with Russia say they had no connections to Hidfő and Győrkös, but one former administrator claimed once an individual joined the team of editors who was openly a Hungarist (Hungarian neo-Nazi) and claimed he was in contact with MNA.
However, it was unclear which branch of the MNA the Hungarist belonged to, as the organization split up in 2012. Moreover, a Russian man living in Hungary, K.S. also appeared among the site’s admins. When we investigated K.S.'s background we found that the person is described even by his friends as having a fierce temper and he was previously convicted of vandalism by a Hungarian court.
Ernő told Index they themselves never tried to establish contacts with Russian diplomats. “One leftist editor wanted to coordinate with the Russians in one concrete case, but the majority voted against it, thus no Russian connection was established. We were really cautious not to turn the site into someone’s playground”, he claimed. Contrary to this, another former editor who holds far-left views recalls the events completely differently. His story is that the editors wanted to establish a news site, but the plan did not come to fruition.
Ernő admits that “the establishment of a news site came up several times” among the editors, but “this did not have anything to do with the Russians either”. According to a former admin, Russian diplomats did not take the Facebook page seriously. He recalled an occasion when he spoke to Russians during a wreath laying ceremony. He mentioned to Russian diplomats that they could give the Facebook page an interview, but he was politely rejected because they would only give an interview to a news site, not to a Facebook page.
Although the majority of the page’s editors, writers are in their 20s, there is an older ex-diplomat in their ranks as well: Sándor Csikós, who translated most of the Russian-language content of the We stand with Russia site. Csikós was bought into the team by the anti-fascist, leftist Máté Kocsis. Later the ex-diplomat was inactive for a short period, then he returned only to leave the team once more a few weeks ago.
An old-school communist from the Foreign Ministry
Csikós earned his degree from MGIMO in Moscow and found work in the Foreign Ministry, where he served between 1974 and 2013, the year he retired. He was sent abroad four times: twice before the democratic transition in the ‘80s to Ulaanbaatar and Kiev, and twice after 2000 to Almaty and Chisinau.
At his last posting in Moldova he worked as a deputy head of mission between 2010 and 2013. In the ministry, he worked as a rapporteur in various departments. “Based on his education, language knowledge and work experience he could have an insight into topics connected to Russia”, wrote the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (KKM) when we inquired about Csikós.
Ernő has left the Facebook page, his words suggest he would avoid being involved if he could revert time. “It was an interesting lesson. Ten years ago I considered the USA to be the point of reference, because they are ‘the leaders of the free world' Reagan deconstructed the Berlin wall and stupid stuff like that. Then I was disappointed in them and I believed we have to stand behind everything that weakens them, but most importantly behind Putin.
“Since my views became much clearer on Russia as well there is no new idol. I realised that great powers must not be seen through the lens of extreme obsequiousness, the right behavior is limitless doubt and criticism in any direction and at any time. Hungary is a member of EU and NATO, this is a given situation, but I believe this is all right. But because of this we should not forgive the USA for the spying scandal or Iraq, but the Russians should not be viewed as wild animals either.”
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