When they meet next week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he will attempt to convince US President Donald Trump to spare Hungary from Washington’s new sanctions on Russian oil.
Last week, the Trump administration announced sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, two significant state-affiliated oil companies in Russia. This move may subject their overseas buyers, notably those in China, India, and Central Europe, to secondary sanctions.
Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the majority of EU members drastically cut back on or stopped importing Russian fossil fuels, but Hungary and Slovakia continued to receive pipeline supply.
A report conducted by CREA and the Centre for the report of Democracy claims that since the invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has received €5.4 billion in tax revenue from Hungary and Slovakia’s imports of Russian oil.
Orbán has long maintained that landlocked Hungary has no practical substitutes for Russian crude and that doing so would lead to an economic meltdown. Orbán, a Trump ally, is scheduled to travel to Washington next week for his first one-on-one encounter with the president since retaking office in January. Critics contest this assertion. In remarks to state radio on Friday, Orbán stated, “If we want exemptions from the American sanctions that are hitting Russia, we have to make the Americans understand this unusual situation.
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