Shocking move? The US could announce sanctions against Hungary! – UPDATE
The United States may be planning new measures to punish the Hungarian government. The US doesn’t like that Hungary is still maintaining close relations with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine, therefore it could announce sanctions against Hungarian people.
According to 444.hu, who has cited several independent diplomatic sources, the US could be planning new measures against Hungary. They might announce sanctions against influential Hungarian individuals, similarly to 2014, when 6 people with corruption charges were banned from the US.
The site mentions that US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, announced a press conference for Wednesday, but he did not elaborate on what the occasion or the topic will be. 444.hu writes that Pressman could announce new sanctions against Hungary. We will keep our readers updated on the sanctions.
US-Hungary relations at a low point
Diplomatic relations between Hungary and the US are at a historical low. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was making jokes about Pressman’s name in his recent State of the Nation address, as his name can be translated to Hungarian as someone who is pushing Hungary towards the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Recently it was confirmed that Hungary was not invited to US President Biden’s democracy summit. According to the Biden administration, Hungary (and fellow NATO-member Turkey) are “dismantling” their democracies.
US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman previously criticised Hungary’s foreign policy. In an open letter sent to Politico, he called out Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for “embracing Russian ‘cease-fire’ proposals while continuing to push policies endorsed by Putin”.
“It is irrelevant, completely irrelevant, what he or any other ambassador thinks about the internal political practices in Hungary because it has nothing to do with him,” Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó reacted to Pressman’s statements, while further emphasising that the US Ambassador “has no business interfering in Hungary’s internal affairs”.
Pressman told Népszava that he personally does not care that much about the “defamation campaign against him”, but both he and the US Foreign Ministry considers it as a political attack against the US. He said that such anti-American rhetoric from an allied country is “unprecedented”.
UPDATE: The US sanctions are here: Hungarian head of the Russian spy bank is also on the list
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