SPICY SCOOPS
There is always a lot of information that we hear and find interesting and newsworthy but don’t publish as part of our investigative reporting—and share instead in this newsletter.
HOW LITHUANIAN PROSECUTORS UNDERMINED OUR GRU INVESTIGATION
In journalism, we’re sadly used to the occasional unethical move—like quoting others’ work without credit, or even passing off entire stories as someone else’s scoop. But what happened to my colleagues and our small Central European–Baltic team investigating the GRU plot behind last year’s arson attacks and parcel bombs is almost unprecedented: Lithuanian prosecutors essentially obstructed then scooped our story. For months, the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office ignored or delayed our journalists’ inquiries about GRU-linked terror plots in the Baltics and Poland. Then, according to our Lithuanian colleague and LRT public broadcast journalist Indrė Makaraitytė’s post on Wednesday, this is what happened:
“Lithuanian journalists know all too well that the spokesperson of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Elena Martinonienė, is more often seen posting on social media than doing her actual job—such as simply confirming whether inquiries were received. The same pattern played out with this international investigation: either silence, or long-delayed replies stating that no information would be provided. Then the situation suddenly changed. After we sent our final set of detailed questions—about suspects arrested in Estonia—at 16:57 an unexpectedly detailed comment, signed by Martinonienė, arrived in my inbox, confirming part of what our international team of journalists had uncovered. At that exact moment, the very same text was released as an official press statement from the Prosecutor General’s Office—disclosing information that journalists had been painstakingly piecing together for half a year.
The international investigation was set to be published tomorrow. But, apparently fearing its impact, the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office rushed out exactly the information that journalists had requested specifically for their report. If this information—about the Russian GRU’s organizers and perpetrators of terrorist attacks, the entire network of those already detained and those under international search—could be made public today, why were journalists’ questions ignored for months? Our foreign colleagues are stunned—they struggle to recall another case of law enforcement in a democratic country committing such a brazen act.”
So that’s why we were forced to publish a classic article version of the story on VSquare immediately on Wednesday—Michael Weiss and Kato Kopaleishvili’s article, originally planned for The Insider—and as originally planned, on Thursday, the visualized, technically more complex version. (Here you can also find Indrė’s version on LRT in English.)
Meanwhile, Lithuanian journalists are furious and planning to protest the prosecutor’s office and its spokesperson—whose maneuvers are clearly approved by the chief prosecutor—already notorious for misleading and obstructing journalists to protect their institution’s image. But Lithuania is still a place where journalism matters. When I asked Indrė whether the government would act and pressure the prosecution to cooperate more with the press, she reminded me that VSquare’s other local partner, Šarūnas Černiauskas and his outlet Siena, started the investigation that snowballed into a corruption scandal and forced Lithuanian prime minister Gintautas Paluckas to resign this August. So, for now, there’s no government to intervene. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
FROM WARSAW TO NOWHERE: TRZASKOWSKI SNUBBED IN HUNGARY
Moving on to more regular scoops… Hungary’s opposition leader Péter Magyar has long looked to Poland for inspiration on how to defeat a populist who dismantled the rule of law and bring a country back from the EU’s margins to its center. He gave long interviews to Polish outlets, spoke warmly about Polish-Hungarian friendship, and even promised that the future prime minister of his TISZA Party—whether himself or someone else—would make their first symbolic visit to Warsaw. But after government-backed Rafał Trzaskowski lost the Polish presidential election in June, the ground shifted. Sources familiar with Magyar’s plans say he had even seriously considered a summer trip to Poland, including a meeting with Lech Wałęsa in Gdańsk, but the idea fizzled as the political climate soured after Trzaskowski’s defeat.
This week, when the liberal mayor of Warsaw came to Hungary for the Budapest Summit, Trzaskowski pushed hard for a meeting with Magyar—currently leading the polls against Orbán—going so far as to cancel some pre-conference events to make time, according to sources familiar with his visit. But Magyar, busy campaigning in rural Hungary, didn’t adjust his schedule. TISZA Party officials told me it was never on the leader’s agenda to reschedule. Multiple Hungarian sources familiar with the Warsaw mayor’s trip summed it up bluntly: “In Magyar’s eyes, Trzaskowski is just a loser.” That’s a sentiment shared by many in Poland, too, where government supporters increasingly wonder whether Trzaskowski’s primary challenger, the more energetic and serious-looking foreign minister Radek Sikorski, should have been the presidential candidate instead.
CHANCES OF NEW POLISH "ASYLUM SEEKERS" GROW AFTER GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE
After his party’s defeat in the Polish presidential election, Prime Minister Donald Tusk was forced to consolidate support through a government reshuffle. Justice Minister Adam Bodnar was replaced by long-time Kraków district judge Waldemar Żurek, who is taking a tougher line against the former Law and Justice (PiS) government’s so-called “neojudges” or “fake judges.” Criminal cases against former PiS officials are also expected to move forward more swiftly. This raises the likelihood of suspects attempting to flee prosecution—following the path of former deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski, charged with 11 counts of financial crimes, who was granted asylum in Hungary. According to a Polish government-connected source, confirming earlier Polish media reports, Dariusz Matecki—prosecuted in the same cases as Romanowski—is already rumored of plotting a similar escape (albeit not necessarily to Hungary).
Meanwhile, a PiS-Hungary insider explained to me the real logic behind Romanowski’s—and possibly other figures’—flight. Prosecutors in these corruption cases need more evidence and are desperate for incriminating testimony. PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro (Romanowski’s former boss) allegedly viewed the relatively unimportant Romanowski as a liability due to his personality. They feared he might crack under pressure, take a plea deal, and implicate higher-level figures. According to the source, this is why Kaczyński asked Viktor Orbán to give Romanowski shelter. However, PiS candidate Karol Nawrocki’s presidential victory and recent polls showing a combined PiS–far-right Konfederacja majority make it less likely that anyone from the previous government would “rat” on others in their political camp.
EUROPE’S TALLEST SKYSCRAPER PLAN MAY NOT BE DEAD AFTER ALL
Back in December 2023, this newsletter broke the story that sparked a long political debate in Hungary: secret government talks about selling a huge plot of land in Budapest to build a luxury neighborhood centered around Europe’s planned tallest skyscraper. Negotiations with Emirati businessman Mohamed Alabbar were already well underway when we revealed them—forcing Viktor Orbán’s government to first defend the project, and then, after opposition from Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony and mounting legal challenges, to appear to drop the plan. Instead, Budapest took ownership of the land and announced plans to launch an international tender for a green, residential development.
Yet just over a week ago, Emirati foreign trade minister Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi visited Hungary, meeting both government officials and the mayor. According to a source familiar with the talks, Zeyoudi lobbied hard on behalf of Alabbar’s Eagle Hills corporation and its luxury neighborhood vision—suggesting the project may not be as dead as it seemed. Soon after, Viktor Orbán flew to Abu Dhabi with little explanation. Both government- and municipality-linked sources told me it looks increasingly likely that Orbán hasn’t given up on the Emirati skyscraper project at all—he’s merely keeping it low profile until the April 2026 elections, after which he would surely try to revive it if he remains in power.
