William Nattrass William Nattrass

How Hungary torpedoed the EU’s sanctions crackdown on Russia

Viktor Orban (Photo: Getty)

‘Hungary’s stance on oil and gas sanctions on Russia remains unchanged,’ Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltán Kovacs said on Monday. ‘We do not support them.’ Cue panic in Brussels as European Union ministers discussed a potential embargo on Russian oil imports, plans for which were presented to the European Parliament on Wednesday morning.

Claims swirled that Hungary might be allowed to continue buying Russian oil for a year longer than other member states to stop it from vetoing the bloc’s new sanctions package, but Kovacs quickly torpedoed this idea too. Hungary does not ‘see any plans or guarantees on how a transition could be managed based on the current proposals, and how Hungary’s energy security would be guaranteed,’ he said, adding that the EU’s proposal is ‘against Hungarian interests.’

No one should be surprised by Hungary’s difficult stance on cutting out Russian energy. While Hungary isn’t the only country causing problems — Slovakia is also being offered a partial exemption from the oil ban and Germany was long sceptical of the proposal — Budapest’s opposition to banning Russian energy is vociferous. An adamantine rejection of oil and gas sanctions, described to me as a ‘red line’ by Hungarian government officials as soon as Russia’s invasion began, means even partial acquiescence to the EU’s ban would be a significant concession.

Hungary is used to swimming against the tide of mainstream opinion

Reluctance to engage in the next round of sanctions has led to renewed accusations that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is ‘Putin’s Puppet’ in Europe. After Hungary reiterated its opposition to the oil embargo, the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council extraordinarily suggested that Hungary was warned in advance about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and that Hungary ‘expected to be able to occupy some of our territory.’ The claim led to raised eyebrows even among the Ukrainian diplomatic community, but it’s in keeping with a deterioration in Hungarian-Ukrainian relations that bleeds over at times into outright hostility.

Hungary insists it is opposed to cutting out Russian energy because doing so is physically impossible.

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