Several human rights groups in Hungary are concerned about the involvement of Daria Boiarskaia, former translator for Vladimir Putin, in an international mission to observe parliamentary elections in Hungary, amid fears of possible external influences.
Boiarskaia, who has worked for years for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has participated in high-level meetings, including between Putin and US President Donald Trump, currently holds a senior advisor position within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE-PA), based in Vienna. She is coordinating the election monitoring mission in Hungary, according to The Guardian.
The scrutiny could significantly affect the position of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in power for 16 years and is considered the most pro-Russian leader in the European Union. Orbán has repeatedly criticized Ukraine and its president, Volodimir Zelenski, these positions becoming central elements of his election campaign.
According to the cited publication, civil society organizations have conveyed that closed-door meetings organized within the OSCE mission involve exchanges of sensitive information, and the presence of a person with previous ties in the Russian diplomatic apparatus could inhibit the freedom of expression of the participants.
“Such meetings often involve the exchange of extremely sensitive information concerning political pressure, risks of electoral manipulation, and threats faced by human rights defenders and journalists. (…) Even the perception that confidential exchanges could be accessed by hostile external actors would prevent activists from speaking freely”, warned Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the Helsinki Committee in Hungary.
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