Hungary Vote Monitors Rebuked for Former Putin Translator’s Role

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(Bloomberg) — The international organization monitoring the fairness of elections has drawn criticism over the presence of a Russian staff member in its efforts to oversee Hungary’s pivotal April ballot.

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The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a Budapest-based rights group, wrote to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe asking about the involvement of Daria Boyarskaya, Senior Adviser of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, in the organization’s election observation mission on Hungary. 

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Boyarskaya previously worked as a translator for Russian President Vladimir Putin in his meetings with US presidents. That threatens to undermine her credibility with Hungarian interlocutors during OSCE missions, the rights group said. 

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The controversy comes amid heightened sensitivity to Russian meddling in the region, which authorities have alleged in recent ballots in Romania and Moldova.

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Most polls show Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lagging behind the opposition Tisza party of Peter Magyar. The longtime premier threatened to escalate his crackdown on civil groups and media if he wins the April 12 ballot. 

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Magyar has accused Orban, Putin’s closest ally in the European Union, of exposing Hungary to Russian interference in the election. Orban says he maintains close relations with Moscow to guarantee Budapest’s energy supplies.

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Nat Perry, a Copenhagen-based spokesperson for the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly, told Bloomberg by phone that while Boyarskaya was a Russian national, she worked with the mission as part of her regular duties as an OSCE staff member, and not as a delegate of the government in Moscow. Bloomberg also contacted Boyarskaya by email for comment.

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Still, Marta Pardavi, co-chair of the Helsinki Committee, said the OSCE’s response hadn’t allayed her group’s concerns.

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“We would like everyone to be able to talk to the election mission in confidence,” Pardavi told Bloomberg by phone. “We would like them to talk without fear that the fact of their meetings and their contents will get to places which can result in adverse consequences for them.”

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The OSCE characterized Hungary’s previous parliamentary election as free but not fair, in part due to the “pervasive overlap” between government and ruling party messaging that “blurred the line between state and party,” handicapping the opposition.

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The Falter news magazine in Vienna first reported Boyarskaya’s involvement.

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Boyarskaya started her assignment at the OSCE’s International Secretariat in 2021, after working with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Russia, according to her biography on the OSCE website. In December she joined a pre-election assessment mission to Hungary by the OSCE’s human rights arm, documents show.

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—With assistance from Marton Eder.

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