Political analyst: EU should not allow Orbán to weaken all its sanctions against Russia

Leading political analyst Anders Aslund, an expert in the field, believes that the European Union has good reason to impose sanctions against Russia’s Rosatom. However, the Russian company is still not included in the latest EU package of sanctions. For this, he condemns Hungary, saying that it was the country’s fault that the sanction plan went unmet.

Previous events

As rtl.hu reports, Russia often circumvents sanctions by purchasing products from third-world countries. Secretary of State for Political Affairs of the United States Victoria Nuland recently addressed this issue. According to her, Russia is becoming increasingly crafty at circumventing these sanctions. It imports devices from third-world manufacturers, the parts of which the country can use for its military equipment.

For this reason, as officially announced by Brussels on Thursday, the 10th package of sanctions would introduce an export ban worth EUR 11 billion on critical technologies and industrial supplies. An important part of the sanctions package is the ban on exports of a number of industrial items that Russia cannot obtain from third-world countries.

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Sanctions on Russian nuclear energy

The original plan was to include Russia’s nuclear sector in the sanctions proposal. This has now not been implemented, and the latest package of sanctions does not include any nuclear-related measures. Earlier, mfor.hu drew attention to the comments of Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó on the EU’s proposals to restrict nuclear cooperation. Szijjártó had earlier said that they would do their utmost to ensure the Russian nuclear sector would not be part of the next sanctions package.

Aslaund’s reaction

As rtl.hu spotted, Anders Aslaund made the following remark on Twitter:

Apparently, the EU has decided not to sanction Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned Atomic Energy Corporation because of Hungarian veto since Viktor Orban works with Rosatom in a dubious way.
The EU cannot allow Orban to dilute all its Russia sanctions. Something must be done!

— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) February 17, 2023

Aslaund argues that there are several reasons to sanction Rosatom. In his Twitter post, he lists 5 reasons. Among them, he writes that Rosatom is considered to be a major armaments company. He also believes that the fact Rosatom can easily become a vehicle for corruption is another significant reason for sanctions. He argues that the Russian company has secret bilateral agreements with countries such as Hungary. In addition, the company is financed by the Putin-controlled VEB.

Aslaund concludes that sanctions against Rosatom should be taken as soon as possible. According to the expert, this would also do a lot against Orbán, as it would keep the money from his corruption scheme. The best way to deal with Hungary is to use Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union. The article sets out EU action against member states that seriously infringe fundamental EU values.

Rtl.hu adds that the European Parliament already voted in favour of the report last year, which stated that the fundamental values of the EU are at risk in Hungary. The European Commission then decided to freeze billions of euros in EU funding. More details on this case can be read HERE.

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Source: rtl.hu, mfor.hu