Dispute over Russian connection in OSCE mission ahead of Hungarian elections

A Hungarian civil rights organization has expressed concern about the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin's former translator in the mission to monitor the upcoming elections in Hungary.

The April 12 vote is believed to be Prime Minister Viktor Orban's toughest election battle since he came to power in 2010. Opinion polls show Orban lagging behind his center-right opponent.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) sent a letter to the leadership of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) this month, demanding that Daria Boyarskaya be removed from their election observation mission, Reuters reported.

"The HHC has requested that Putin's former translator be relieved of her duties related to the Hungarian elections in order to ensure an atmosphere of trust and confidentiality," the organization's website states.

Boyarskaya, a senior advisor at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), "assists in the preparations for and participates in official visits by OSCE PA officials, and provides support to election observation missions," according to the organization's website.

She previously worked at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly spokesman Nat Parry told Reuters in an emailed response that concerns about Boyarska's participation were "unfounded" and that the body had no plans to remove her from the mission.

"Ms. Boyarskaya is a professional international civil servant bound by the OSCE PA's rules of procedure and code of conduct, which include confidentiality requirements and protection from undue influence by national governments, and there is no reason to believe that any of these rules were violated," Parry said.

In 2022, Poland placed Boyarskaya on a sanctions list, banning her from entering the country.

The Polish Interior Ministry said at the time that its support for Putin's government "poses a serious risk of provocations or incidents that would undermine Poland's international standing."

The Vienna-based OSCE is a body that brings together 57 states, including former Cold War rivals the United States and Russia, as well as most countries in Europe, Central Asia and North America. Its purpose is to prevent and monitor conflicts in Europe.