Béla Kovács (born 25 February 1960) is a Hungarian former

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

between 2010 and 2019. He is a former member of

Jobbik The Jobbik – Movement for a Better Hungary (, ), commonly known as Jobbik (), and previously known as Conservatives () between 2023 and 2024, is a Conservatism, conservative List of political parties in Hungary, political party in Hungary. Ori ...

, which he joined in 2003 and left in 2016. He was elected President of the

Alliance of European National Movements The Alliance of European National Movements (AENM) was a European political party that was formed in Budapest on 24 October 2009 by a number of ultranationalist and far-right parties from countries in Europe. AENM's founding members were Jobbik ...

(AENM) on 17 December 2013, replacing Bruno Gollnisch. The Hungarian government accused Kovács of engaging in espionage against European Union institutions for the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n government. In September 2014, the Hungarian public prosecutor asked the European Parliament to suspend Kovács's MEP immunity so that he could be investigated. The European Parliament lifted the immunity on 14 October 2015. In September 2022 the

Curia of Hungary The Curia (, ), also known as the Supreme Court (''Legfelsőbb Bíróság'') before 2011, is the supreme court and highest judicial authority of Hungary. The Curia was founded in 1949 as the Hungarian People's Republic, People's Republic of Hunga ...

sentenced him in absentia to five years imprisonment for espionage. He lives and teaches in Russia. Béla Kovács's Russian father served in the military and his son has been 'known to the KGB almost from the day he was born'. Kovacs grew up with foster parents and moved with them to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in 1976, where in 1979 he met his 7 years older Russian wife Svetlana Istoshina, who was in Japan due to an earlier marriage (1975) to a Japanese nuclear scientist who had worked in Russia and Kazakhstan, Omiya Massanori. Kovacs married Istoshina in 1986. Istoshina was also briefly married to an Austrian man, convicted criminal Mario Schön, in 1983, four years after meeting Kovacs, and holds Austrian citizenship. Kovacs lived in Russia from 1988 to 2003 and claims to have worked in the "leadership of various trading companies" during this time. Journalists have however found no traces of Kovacs or his wife in registers of Russian companies, or articles in Russian newspapers about Kovacs's supposed business career He has also studied

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

MGIMO Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (, also known as MGIMO University) is an higher education, institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Russian ...

university in Moscow.

References

External links

Béla Kovács Bio
on jobbik.hu
jobbik-mep-bela-kovacs-accused-spying-previously-lose-immunity
1960 births Living people Politicians from Budapest Jobbik MEPs MEPs for Hungary 2009–2014 MEPs for Hungary 2014–2019 Russian spies {{Hungary-MEP-stub