According to the Hungarian Prime Minister, Hungary would collapse economically due to the decrease in Russian oil, since it obtains over four-fifths of its crude oil imports from Russia.
The Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán indicated that he would attempt to secure an exemption for Hungary from the new sanctions on Russian oil imposed by the US president, Donald Trump, during their meeting next week.
The Trump administration announced sanctions last week on Russia on one of its large state-owned oil companies, Rosneft, and Lukoil, a step that might bring its foreign purchasers, such as those in India, China, and Central Europe, to secondary sanctions.
Although most member states of the European Union drastically minimized or completely ceased the import of Russian fossil fuels after a full-scale invasion of Moscow on 24 February 2022, pipeline deliveries have continued in Hungary and Slovakia.
Even recently, Hungary has increased its portion of Russian oil in its energy mix.
Atlantic Council, a US-based think-tank, projects that Hungary now obtains 86% of its crude oil imports from Russia, an increase of 61% prior to the invasion of Ukraine, as the EU moves towards a ban on Russian energy by 2028.
A study by CREA and the Centre of the Study of Democracy found that Russian oil imports to Hungary and Slovakia have earned the Kremlin tax money totalling 5.4 billion since the invasion of Ukraine.
Orbán, a Trump ally who is due to visit Washington next week, in his first bilateral meeting with the president since returning to power in January, has long held on to landlocked Hungary, having no feasible alternative to Russian crude, and that substitution of the supplies would result in economic collapse. Critics dispute this claim.
“We must make Americans realize this oddity of the case, in order to be given exemptions under American sanctions that are striking Russia”, Orbán said in an interview with state radio on 31st October.
The Hungarian Prime Minister, who is generally considered the closest partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the EU, has been in a friendly direction with the Kremlin even during the war and has adopted an aggressive attitude against Ukraine, presenting the neighbouring country as a significant threat to the security and economy of Hungary.
Orbán indicated on Friday that the US administration, as well as Moscow, were interested in ending the war, but that the key obstacles to peace were Ukraine and the EU. Nevertheless, an intended meeting between Trump and Putin in Budapest was recently called off as the Russian authorities had stated that they did not support an immediate ceasefire.
Orbán promised he would visit Washington with a big delegation of his ministers, economic officials, and his security advisers to have a wholesome review of the US-Hungarian relations. He also said that Budapest hopes to conclude an economic cooperation package with the US, which would also involve new American investments in Hungary.
But he emphasized that any deal would be conditional on maintaining Hungary’s access to Russian energy.
