Trump grants Hungary an exception for Russian energy

US sanctions against Russia

Media: Trump grants Hungary an exception for Russian energy

Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban is asking Washington for permission for further energy imports from Russia. US President Trump is open to it – and is now said to have finally agreed.

Despite US sanctions against Russian oil companies, President Donald Trump is granting Ukraine’s neighboring country Hungary a one-year exemption for purchasing energy from Russia, according to media reports. During his visit to Washington, Trump gave Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a promise to allow Hungary to import energy from Russia with impunity for twelve months. This was reported by several media outlets such as the TV station CNN, citing White House representatives. The government headquarters did not comment publicly on this.

Immediately after the meeting with Trump, Orban said that the Republican had granted his country a special arrangement. “With regard to the Turkish Stream (natural gas) pipeline and the Druzhba (oil) pipeline, Hungary will receive a full exemption from sanctions,” Orban was quoted as saying by the state news agency MTI.

Hungary is heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas. This is also due to the fact that Orban’s government – unlike other EU countries such as Germany and Bulgaria – has never made serious efforts to free the country from this dependency. In the EU, the Hungarian obtained an exemption that allows Russian oil imports via pipelines. Hungary has been connected to Russia via such a tube since communist times.

In the public part of the meeting, Trump appeared open to a possible exemption. Orban had asked the US government in the White House to be able to continue importing oil and gas from Russia because there were no short-term alternatives. Trump said they were “looking into” the issue because Hungary, as a landlocked country, had no access to seaports. However, this also applies to some other EU states.

The US government imposed new sanctions on Russian energy companies in October because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which could also result in secondary punitive measures against buyers.