Hungary again distances itself from the EU to obtain more gas from Russia | International

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó visited Moscow by surprise on Thursday to ask the Kremlin to increase its gas shipments to the country, which remains one of Russia’s main supporters within the European Union. “This request will be considered immediately,” replied the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, whose nation has an ally in Hungary against EU sanctions. Ukraine is thus again in the background for the Hungarian Government of Viktor Orbán, compared to the priority that this trip reveals: business and guaranteeing the supply of Russian gas to Hungarian consumers.

“We have arrived in Moscow. We have two tasks: to make sure that the Hungarian people have natural gas and to show that we want peace as soon as possible,” Szijjártó stated upon his arrival in Moscow in a message posted on his Facebook profile.

The head of Hungarian diplomacy arrived in the Russian capital one day after the European Commission asked to save electricity for next winter in the middle of the “gas war” with Moscow. After his meeting with Lavrov, the minister barely spoke about the Russian offensive in Ukraine. The high official asserted that his country “is not interested in dividing the world into blocs” and that Budapest “would like peace to arrive as soon as possible. War is a very bad thing.” His Russian counterpart stressed that there is a Hungarian minority in Ukraine and recalled that many refugees have sought asylum in his country.

Szijjártó did expand more on the business of both countries. “In order to secure Hungary’s energy supply, the government has decided to purchase an additional 700 million cubic meters of gas per year,” the minister of a country that imports about 80% of its gas from Russia later said.

Unlike many of its European partners, who followed the recommendations of Brussels and opted to acquire this resource based on its market price, the Hungarian company MVM and the Russian company Gazprom signed long-term contracts in September last year for which Budapest will receive 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year for 15 years, plus another 10 optional ones. All this through gas pipelines from third countries that do not transit through Ukraine.

“It saddens me to see how the European Union follows, in essence, the path that the United States indicates; that the West as a whole must be one: neither a step back nor a step to the left or to the right, only forward, where the older comrade points,” Lavrov said.

“One can dream, one can blow several balloons, but the physical reality is what it is. It is impossible to buy such an amount of gas in Europe without Russian sources,” Szijjártó said. According to the Hungarian minister, the previously agreed supply “would be sufficient in normal times, but we all know that we are not living in normal times.”

Viktor Orbán’s government was one of the biggest opponents within the European Union to the package of sanctions on Russian oil approved in June. To achieve its approval, the 27 agreed that that country, Slovakia and the Czech Republic be the only exceptions to the veto on the purchase of Russian crude at the end of the year.

“Despite the difficult international situation and the intention of some of our partners to increase their pressure through sanctions on Russia, our cooperation continues,” Lavrov argued during the press conference. “I appreciate our relations, our talks today have confirmed their long-term strategic nature,” the Russian foreign minister added.

Orbán was one of the last European leaders to visit Vladimir Putin before launching his troops into Ukraine. The Hungarian Prime Minister, who emerged stronger in power after the April elections, toasted his Russian counterpart with champagne during his visit “on a mission of peace” and criticized the European sanctions applied since 2014 for the annexation of Crimea and the war of Donbas “have done more damage to Hungary than to Russia”.

The Hungarian leader did not change his position even after the offensive on Ukraine was completed. Just six days ago, Orbán said the European Union has “shot itself in the lungs” with the huge sanctions passed after the fighting began.

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