Former powerful CEO of Hungarian state companies, convicted for economic crimes, invited to government meetings
The former head of the Hungarian nuclear power plant in the city of Paks and the state energy company was sentenced in 2019 to five years of imprisonment for ec...
Before the Hungarian government exited the Russian bank, it was helped out by a government-close financial institution
According to internal documents obtained by Direkt36, OTP closed the accounts of the International Investment Bank after the outbreak of the war. Followingly, t...
“We need to pressure” the Hungarians – Leaked documents reveal collapse of Russian-led bank in Budapest
Internal documents obtained by Direkt36 reveal that the Hungarian government has become one of the strongest backers of the Russian-dominated International Inve...
While former Fidesz politician rents properties to Rosatom, his son is paid for cleaning toilets
The company of Sándor Kovács signed contracts with the Russians building the Paks II nuclear power plant in the amount of almost 3 million euros. Direkt36's r...
We looked into the contracts signed by the Hungarian government with “Mr. Russia”
Direkt36 looked into the content of consultancy contracts that the Hungarian government signed last year with Klaus Mangold, an influential German businessman d...
Inside Viktor Orbán’s Response to the War in Ukraine
Viktor Orbán came home from his talks with Vladimir Putin saying that he did not expect war. When it did break out, there was some wavering on the continuation...
Sinking ground on the Paks II nuclear power plant site could further delay the project
The Hungarian authority assessing the plans of Russian Rosatom will have to make a decision whether safe construction above a fault line which is vulnerable to ...
Inside the opposition’s crushing defeat against Viktor Orbán
The chaos was even bigger inside the campaign than it looked from the outside. Direkt36 has investigated how the opposition, which led in the polls last fall, l...
Inside Orbán’s Fidesz party preparing for Hungary’s parliamentary election
For some time now, all government proposals land on PM Orbán's desk with green, yellow, or red post-its. People with inside knowledge about the election strate...
Spies, business deals and criminals. How Orbán favors Russian interests instead of Western ones
In the past 12 years, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has gotten into a situation many times, when they had to decide between the interests of Weste...