Hungarian minister: We are working with the Russians on a solution to avoid US sanctions 🔄

European leaders have “missed a great opportunity” to amend their “failed” Ukraine strategy, and they should have doubled down on peace efforts amid the current danger of escalation, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Pécs, in southern Hungary. He also said that the Hungarian Foreign Ministry is working with the Russians to find a solution to avoid US sanctions.

Addressing a National Consultation campaign event on Monday evening, the minister said Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election had brought closer a peaceful resolution to the war, but the danger of escalation had also grown, “due to the measures of the outgoing Washington administration that ignore the will of the people”.

Szijjártó said EU leaders could have used the US developments as an excuse to amend their “failed Ukraine strategy, which is also weakening the continent”.

He said his latest visit to Moscow had been aimed at bolstering peace efforts and further guaranteeing Hungary’s energy security, as US sanctions against Gazprombank had put countries purchasing Russian energy resources in a difficult situation.

The background to this case is that the US introduced sanctions back in November, excluding 50 other Russian financial institutions from the international financial system in addition to Gazprombank. The measure is aimed at preventing the financing of the war in Ukraine. Gazprombank manages Gazprom’s finances, and all purchases and payments for energy are made through this bank.

“We are now working together on a solution with the Russians, company leaders and the deputy PM for energy…” Szijjártó said.

In a Facebook video on Monday, Szijjártó indicated from Moscow that a solution to the US sanctions on Gazprombank would soon be found, meaning that payments for natural gas, oil, and nuclear fuel purchased from Russia could be resolved.

According to experts, the solution is likely to be the insertion of a Turkish, Azeri, Arab, or possibly Serbian player in the payment chain, which would circumvent the US sanctions, Forbes said.

It is also interesting to note that since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Hungarian government has not reduced but drastically increased its purchases of Russian raw materials. Thus, Hungarian energy diversification is still far away, and there is no intention to do so.

He slammed the “hypocrisy of certain colleagues” who “regularly emphasised their support” ahead of EU foreign council meetings “but never stand by me in the debate”. “There is a great deal of hypocrisy in the world regarding the ties with the East, Russia as well as China,” he said.

Szijjártó praised Hungary’s policy of economic neutrality, which allowed the country to trade with Eastern and Western partners alike, “despite the ongoing discourse to decouple the European and Chinese economies.”

Related article from Monday: Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov again received the Hungarian Foreign Minister in Moscow

Read also – Slovak interior minister: Possible Hungarian terror attack against the Friendship crude oil pipeline

UPDATE

Solution to problems caused by US sanctions on Gazprombank close, says Hungarian minister – details HERE