US sanctions are here: Hungarian head of the Russian spy bank is also on the list
We reported that the United States could announce sanctions against Hungarian individuals on Wednesday. It really did happen, and Imre Laszlóczki, Vice President of the International Investment Bank (IIB, also known as the Russian spy bank), was also added to the US sanctions list.
Hungarians on the US sanctions list
Imre Laszlóczki was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Investment Bank (IIB) representing Hungary in September 2019, 24.hu reports. Imre Laszlóczki graduated from the Diplomatic Faculty of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1987 with a degree in Arabic and English and a diploma in Public Administration in 2003.
Since 1986, he has worked in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving in several countries. In 2018 and 2019, he was a coordinator in the Deputy State Secretariat for the Development of Eastern Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The list of sanctioned individuals also includes Nikolay Kosov, President of the International Investment Bank, and Georgy Potapov, Deputy Chairman of the Bank’s Board of Governors, both based in Budapest, as well as the Bank itself.
IIB is a Budapest-based financial institution. Almost 50 percent is owned by the Russian state and 25.27 percent by the Hungarian state, Telex reports.
Background to the press conference
David Pressman, the US Ambassador to Hungary, held a press conference starting today at 5 PM. As we wrote before, 444.hu reported, citing several independent diplomatic sources, that the US government is planning a new measure to punish the Hungarian government. They wrote that sanctions could be imposed on influential individuals, similar to the 2014 expulsions. However, the embassy has not previously released any information on the subject of the US ambassador’s press conference.
Bloomberg had already reported on Wednesday that the US could sanction officials of a Hungarian bank. However, the Hungarian embassy told the news portal that “they are unable to share information on sanctions, but there is no indication that the press conference was related to US deliberations on sanctions”.
Pressman: We are concerned
“We are concerned that the Hungarian government continues to maintain close ties with Russia and to support the Russian war machine through various economic channels,” Telex quotes the Ambassador as saying.
With the support of the US Embassy, a nationwide poster campaign was launched this week in Hungary, calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The posters are saying “Ruszkik, haza!” (“Russians, go home!”) and “There can only be peace in Ukraine if the Russian occupying army withdraws”.
To this, Gergely Gulyás, the PM’s chief of staff, responded on Wednesday by saying that the US embassy had launched a “pro-war campaign”.
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7 Comments
It detest me when forum’s such as DNH provides for commentaries, are used by individuals or who-ever, that to often are published, subjects written on, by reporters or commentators, that totally are void – of substance of fact.
The “cross examine process” requesting them to substantiate there claims or statements, all to often, proves of no benefit, in obtaining Truth that continues on as another story or article that is a Fabrication of Truth.
I write this commentary with full disclosure and admission that I have no Facts, to substantiate what I present as a commentary.
It was a pleasant April sun filled early afternoon, sitting as we often do, having a tea and pastry, taking in the sun, near our house in District V – Budapest.
A sole gentlemen of mature age arrived and was looking for a table to sit, which non where available, due to patronage numbers.
We invited him to join us at our table for three.
The architecture along the Vaci utca, in District V is Splendid.
Our table invitee not Hungarian,but from a country that boarders Hungary, commenting on the Vaci utca and the architecture, added :
“Do you know that vast numbers of properties along the Vaci utca are owned by Germans & Russians.”
I commentate with no knowledge nor Facts – but could there be FACT, in what was disclosed to us???
I won’t DISMISS it, being of the opinion, that the Hungarian Government, under Prime Minister – Victor Orban, is COVERING up, relating to relationships with Russia, and this comment, without FACT, could have Truth associated to it.
Apart from I. Lászlóczky, are those other “Hungarians” (mentioned in the article above) really Hungarians?! Do they hold Hungarian passports, or Russian passports? Or, for convenience, hold both?
PERSONALLY, I’d be wary of anyone who went to study in the USSSR (!), pre 1991, and especially of one holding such a high position in a financial institute with a questionable reputation. And to top that off, I. Laszlóczky “worked in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, how convenient.
Regarding the first comment. Really, who knows? But, we do know that investments in property (epecially in Hungary) are as safe as Fort Knox, and especially when one is sanctioned and wants to move one’s money out of RU.
One should check the etymology of the word “Gringo”. It is as pertinent nowadays as it was when was first introduced.
The cognitive dissonance with the American ambassador is out of this world. Russia is in Ukraine precisely because the US was trying so hard and so successfully to get their military wares there.
Russia is in Ukraine because Puyin, like Orban, think that they should return to the good old borders, like when Russia terrorized Hungarians.
So, K, I guess Poland and Finland and the Baltic States are next???
No, the very next on Vlad’s list (maybe as soon as next year – IF the circumstances are right) is his other BFF’s Belarus, After that, Vlad will have his eye on Georgia, reasses and who knows, and by then if our Vik is still in full control (and out of NATO and the EU), Vlad might decide to roll over us (like in ’56).
Not quite, The plan was by WEF / Klauss Swab, George Soros, Zelinski and more neocons/ that Israel will set-up New Jerusalem in the 5 eastern counties in Ukraine, than Victoria Nulad / who was running the bio-weapon program in Ukraine/ and the State Department head Blinken crossed the Russian red line with trying to get Ukraine into the NATO. Igor Bergkop from Ukraine started to bring in boat loads of izraeli citizens, then Zeliski kept on attacking the Russian minority, agitated by $oros, now they have their ass handed to Zelinski. During Trump, Russia did not take any land from anybody. The last fraudulent election stolen from Trump actually backfired on the jews and liberals, now they lost their future “New Jerusalem”.