Hungary urges EU to pause Russia sanctions as oil prices surge
BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán urged the European Union on Monday to suspend sanctions on Russian oil and gas to counter prices sent soaring by the war in the Middle East.
Oil prices have rocketed above $100 a barrel for the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as Iran carries out retaliatory strikes against crude-producing Gulf nations.
Orbán — the Kremlin's closest ally in the EU — has repeatedly criticised sanctions against Russia, leveraging his veto power to get Hungary exempted from them and to reduce European aid for Ukraine.
“We must review and suspend all sanctions imposed on Russian energy throughout Europe. I have initiated this today in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,” the Hungarian nationalist leader said in a video published on Facebook.
He claimed Hungary's escalating row with neighbouring Ukraine over stalled Russian oil supplies has also turned into a “serious threat” to the EU.
Hungary, along with neighbouring Slovakia, accuses Ukraine of deliberately delaying the reopening of the Druzhba pipeline, which pumps Russian oil to the two landlocked EU member states; Kyiv says it was damaged by Russian strikes in January.
Orbán has been holding up a €90-billion EU loan to the war-torn country and a new round of sanctions against Moscow over what he calls the “Ukrainian oil blockade”.
The nationalist leader has recently ramped up political attacks on Ukraine ahead of a closely fought parliamentary election on April 12.
Relations hit a new low over the weekend after Hungary arrested seven Ukrainian state bank employees and seized $80 million in cash and nine gold bars that they were transporting from Austria.
By RSS/AFP
