Orbán secures Russian Energy Supplies in Moscow Meeting, Leveraging Trump-Granted Exemption
MOSCOW – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, solidifying Hungary’s reliance on Russian crude oil despite international efforts to diminish the Kremlin’s revenue stream. The meeting comes after the Trump management granted Hungary a waiver from sanctions designed to limit Russia‘s oil exports, a move critics say directly funds Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 61% of Hungary’s crude oil imports originated from Russia. This year, that figure has surged to 92%, demonstrating a deepening dependence facilitated by the US exemption. Slovakia is even more reliant, depending “almost 100%” on Russian supplies, according to a May report from the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). The situation highlights a growing divergence in European energy policy and raises questions about the effectiveness of sanctions.
Isaac Levi, an analyst at CREA, condemned the US waiver as “a terrible and unnecessary mistake that will allow more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to flow into the Kremlin’s war chest.” He pointed to the Czech Republic, another landlocked nation, as a counterexample, noting it no longer imports Russian crude oil and currently enjoys lower fuel prices than Hungary. “This clearly demonstrates that the oil flows that continue to finance Putin’s war in ukraine are fully unnecessary,” Levi stated.
During the meeting, Orbán and Putin also discussed recent US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Putin indicated he did not rule out a potential summit with former President Donald Trump in Budapest, as reported by Russian state media.The two had previously agreed to a meeting in Budapest in October to discuss ending the conflict, but those plans were abandoned after Trump stated he did not want the talks to be unproductive.
