to Central Europe

and the Kremlin, and in 2009 he arranged the first informal meeting between President Putin and
Viktor Orbán, who was still in opposition at the time.
Szilárd Kiss has had a successful business career dealing mostly with food products in Russia for
the last 28 years. Although Kiss was closer to the MSZP, Keskeny and Kiss formed a friendship
when Keskeny was the Hungarian ambassador to Moscow between 1998 and 2002. As a result,
Kiss’ foreign policy career soared after Fidesz got in power in 2010. Probably due to his Russian
affiliations, Kiss became the Agricultural Attaché at the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow in 2010
despite failing the national security screening twice. In addition, it was an open secret in the
Foreign Ministry that Kiss might have been recruited by the FSB. 136 The wife of Kiss, Yelena
Tsvetkova established a Hungarian visa center in Moscow for Russian businessmen. Kiss was later
removed from the government, and currently there is an investigation going on against him. 137
The Tolstoy Association
The Tolstoy Association for the Hungarian-Russian Cooperation was officially formed in one of
the halls of the Hungarian parliament in 2011 on the initiative of Sándor Lezsák and Ernő Keskeny.
The founding declaration expressed the need for a shared forum of “joint thinking based on
common [Hungarian-Russian] cultural and Christian values,” establishing a realistic view of
Russia in the Hungarian public, as well as promoting Hungary’s image in Russia. The declaration
was also signed by Péter Erdő, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and the
Primate of Hungary. Since 2011, the Association has conducted a wide array of cultural activities,
including the organization of Russian cultural quizzes for Hungarian secondary school students
about “Russian classics,” supporting research on Russian-Hungarian common historical origins;
and hosting a conference titled “The health of culture, the culture of health” in 2014. 138 In 2012,
the Association published a book entitled “Culture and hygiene Humanism as need,” which
included 12 lectures given at the Hungarian Cultural, Scientific and Information Centre in Moscow.
The book’s central problem is national identity defined against the “new globalized, valuerelativistic
information age besieged by monetary dictatorship.” 139
Traditionalist NGOs
There are several Christian, pro-life, anti-feminist, homophobe NGOs that either relate to Fidesz-
KDNP or to the Roman Catholic Church. Representatives of The Alpha Alliance for the Protection
of Unborn, New-Born Babies, Children and Families attended Jobbik’s racist conference. The
Alliance lists 17 other traditionalist NGOs as partners on its website. 140
The Association of Christian Intellectuals (Keresztény Értelmiségiek Szövetsége, KÉSZ) is founded
by the Christian KDNP party and ratified the petition supporting the Russian anti-LGBT law
against gay propaganda. 141,142 One key person of the traditionalist network is Edit Frivaldszky who
heads the Together for Life Association, which was the other Hungarian NGO signing the pro-
Russian anti-gay petition. She has also been working for the Catholic Pro-Life Forum and
participates in several traditionalist networks with connections to the Kremlin. Although
136 See:
http://index.hu/belfold/2015/07/21/kiss_szilard_keskeny_erno_jelena_cvetkova_lena_orosz_titkosszolgalat_meszaro
s_lorinc_4_resz/, http://444.hu/2015/01/22/letartoztattak-a-kormany-egyik-moszkvai-lobbistajat
137 Read more at: http://index.hu/belfold/2016/03/03/kiss_szilard_mar_szabadlabon_epiti_kapcsolatait/
138 See their website: http://tolsztojtarsasag.hu/
139 See: http://tolsztojtarsasag.hu/en/magunkrol/kultura-es-higienia-a-humanizmus-mint-szuekseglet.html,
http://tolsztojtarsasag.hu/Docs/Egyhazfoi-levelek.pdf
140 See: http://www.alfaszovetseg.hu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=31
141 See: http://novaeterrae.eu/en/news/461-our-support-to-the-recent-and-controversial-russian-federal-law.html
142 Another sub-group consists of Catholic organizations, such as the Hungarian Catholic Family Association (Magyar
Katolikus Családegyesület) or the Pacem in Utero Association against abortion, the latter has its office at Pázmány
Péter Catholic University. See: http://alfaszovetseg.hu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102
37