Goulash: Russian Spies and Sabotage; Orbán Meddles Abroad; Online Hate and Doxing – Best of 2025
Welcome to the last Goulash of this year. Instead of the usual weekly menu, this special edition offers a look back: a hand-picked selection of 15 of our strongest stories from 2025.
Choosing wasn’t easy. I tried to curate this list so that VSquare’s own investigations, international collaborations, and the work of our regional partners are all represented in roughly equal measure. It was challenging for another reason, too. We’re a Central European outlet — and looking back at these stories, it’s hard to deny that the region had a particularly intense year.
You’ll find our widely cited investigation into the GRU’s sabotage operations across Europe as well as many more stories about Russian espionage; Viktor Orbán’s continued interference beyond Hungary’s borders; the growing coordination among Europe’s pro-Trump conservatives and far right; and several stories related to the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
These deep-dive, many times cross-border investigations sparked debate, traveled far beyond our region, and earned multiple award nominations. We’re proud to revisit them here as we briefly pause, catch our breath, and get ready for what comes next.
Next Thursday, Goulash is back to its regular rhythm — fresh scoops and new investigations from Central Europe and beyond. Until then, enjoy the read and happy new year. We look forward to serving you truth and transparency in 2026.
The name VSquare comes from V4, an abbreviation of the Visegrád countries group. Over the years, VSquare has become the leading regional voice of investigative journalism in Central Europe. We are non-profit, independent, and driven by a passion for journalism
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VSQUARE’S BEST OF 2025
HOW ROMANIANS HELPED CONSERVATIVE BROTHERS IN POLAND WIN ELECTIONS
Our last big story of the year came out a few days before Christmas, so you might have missed it: a cross-border investigation into the emerging pro-Trump alliance of Central Europe’s conservative forces — and the campaign operatives behind their success. As Viktor Orbán’s fortunes fade, Romania’s George Simion and Poland’s Karol Nawrocki are emerging as the movement’s next leaders.
SPONSORED HATE: HOW POLITICIANS PAID FOR META ADS TO ATTACK JOURNALISTS
Heroically led by our great colleague Karin Kőváry Sólymos, this Visegrád region investigation shows how politicians — especially in Slovakia and Hungary — have mastered the use of paid social media ads to attack journalists and civil society; spread disinformation at scale; and game platform algorithms even as EU political advertising winds down.
INSIDE THE FALL OF VIKTOR ORBÁN’S SECRET BRUSSELS SPY NETWORK
In this investigation, I worked for Direkt36 along with colleagues from Germany’s Paper Trail Media and Belgium’s De Tijd to reveal that Hungarian intelligence ran a clumsy espionage operation in Brussels in the 2010s, spying on the EU and attempting to recruit Hungarians inside EU institutions — only to be exposed, causing the network to collapse.
REVEALED: HOW RUSSIA’S GRU PLOTTED EUROPE’S PARCEL EXPLOSIONS
Russia’s GRU military intelligence service ran a covert sabotage operation in Europe, sending explosive parcels that detonated in several NATO countries across the continent. This international investigation traces how Russian handlers used Telegram-recruited operatives in the West, exposing a wider campaign to quietly disrupt European infrastructure.
CROSSING NATO LINES: TRACING THE GRU’S EXPLOSIVE PARCEL BOMBS
This visual storytelling version of our investigation into the GRU’s sabotage campaign shows how explosive parcels crossed multiple EU borders unnoticed before detonating in Poland, Lithuania, and elsewhere — with the story leading us as far as a Soviet nuclear submarine.
CZECH INDUSTRY’S HIDDEN ROLE IN RUSSIA’S WAR MACHINE
It’s hard to pick which of the many 2025 stories to feature about sanctions evasion, but maybe this one: it shows how Czech CNC machine makers kept exporting billion-crown equipment to Russia — even after bans on dual-use equipment — supplying Russian arms and industrial firms through long-standing ties. As if nothing had happened since February 2022.
FORMER RUSSIAN SPY GOES INTO BUSINESS IN POLAND
My Polish colleagues revealed that Stanisław Szypowski, previously jailed for spying for the GRU, has re-emerged as a well-connected businessman, attending embassy and policy events and meeting state officials in Warsaw in ways that closely resemble his pre-arrest intelligence activities. God knows where the Polish counterintelligence was during all this.
THE GRU’S TRAVEL AGENT: SLUTSKY ARRANGED MOSCOW TRIP FOR ROBERT FICO’S ADVISOR
Staying on the story that is the GRU: we also found that the “James Bond-like” Russian Duma politician Leonid Slutsky and his Russian Peace Foundation helped arrange the Moscow visit of a close ally and adviser to Slovak prime minister Robert Fico, with Slutsky and his foundation maintaining close ties to the GRU and routinely passing information about foreign guests to the agency’s European espionage department.
PRO-ORBÁN PROPAGANDIST’S TIES TO RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE EXPOSED
Yes, 2025 has indeed been a GRU-rich year in Central Europe… My reporting revealed that Georg Spöttle, a German-Hungarian pro-Orbán and pro-Kremlin commentator, maintained close ties to Russian military intelligence, triggering one of his close acquaintances to fail a national security screening.
THE STORY OF TERRORGRAM: HOW ONLINE EXTREMISM LED TO A SLOVAK TERRORIST ATTACK
A joint Slovak–US investigation found that a convicted Slovak extremist using the online name “Slovakbro” had long been in contact with the far-right gunman who was radicalized in violent online networks and went on to carry out the deadly shooting at the Tepláreň LGBTI+ bar in Bratislava in October 2022.
ORBÁN’S COVERT BOSNIA OPERATION: SPECIAL FORCES STOOD READY TO EXTRACT DODIK
I never know which Balkan countries are counted as Central Europe, but it doesn’t really matter as long as Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is meddling there, too: I found out that after a Budapest meeting with Viktor Orbán, Aleksandar Vučić and Milorad Dodik, Orbán’s chief bodyguard, prepared to deploy Hungarian counter-terrorism police to Banja Luka to help Dodik evade a possible arrest by a Bosnian court. Stupid plan, crazy story.
HOW A CZECH SUPPLY CHAIN FEEDS THE GLOBAL SPYWARE
This investigation shows that several people in the Czech Republic worked for the spyware firm Intellexa, representatives of which are on trial in Greece. The operations centered on Israeli entrepreneur Dvir Horef Hazan in the town of Krnov, where an Israeli flag-draped headquarters functioned as a de facto base. Very subtle, isn’t it?
This international investigative project reveals that Pravfond, which operated for years under the guise of a human rights and legal aid organization, collaborated with spies; financed propaganda; and funded the defense of alleged intelligence operatives and criminals to advance the Kremlin’s geopolitical influence worldwide We also have a detailed story on Pravfond’s Polish operations.
DOXING: WHEN PRIVATE DATA BECOMES A RUSSIAN WEAPON
Russian actors are systematically collecting and publishing private data on thousands of people they label as Putin’s enemies — using a Ukraine-tested doxing playbook to target activists, politicians, and journalists across Central Europe, while authorities largely fail to counter the threat.
THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN PORN? MEET PRAGUE’S PORN PHARAOH
Investigace.cz reveals how Prague became Europe’s adult movie capital and how a Frenchman, Stéphane Pacaud, built WebGroup Czech Republic into a dominant force in this industry, now threatened by new legislation — and yes, this story is completely safe for work, don’t worry.
This was VSquare’s 56th Goulash newsletter. I hope you gobbled it up. Come back soon for another serving.
Still hungry? Check the previous newsletter issues here!
SZABOLCS PANYI & THE VSQUARE TEAM
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VSquare’s Budapest-based lead investigative editor in charge of Central European investigations, Szabolcs Panyi is also a Hungarian investigative journalist at Direkt36. He covers national security, foreign policy, and Russian and Chinese influence. He was a European Press Prize finalist in 2018 and 2021.