It is “hypocrisy” when the bloc says it must abandon Moscow’s oil and gas to diversify sources of supply, the Hungarian prime minister has said.
EU pressure to abandon Russian energy is “absurd” and Budapest will continue to resist, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
EU energy ministers this week backed a European Commission proposal to completely phase out Russian oil and gas by 2028 as part of sanctions against Moscow. The bloc’s ban on signing new gas transit deals with Russia comes into force on January 1, 2026, although previously agreed contracts have been allowed to continue.
Hungary, which unlike most other EU members maintains a neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict and continues to buy Russian energy, faces pressure from Brussels to align with the rest of the bloc, Orban said in an interview with Kossuth Radio on Friday.
Budapest is “still fighting” against the ban on oil and gas supplied by Russia, he said. “This battle is not lost yet. Serious maneuvering is needed… to defend against this,” added the prime minister.
Hungary is currently “working on how to avoid” sanctions against Russian energy companies, he added.
Brussels goes ahead with the ban because “They do not want to accept that in Hungary the prices of public services are extremely low compared to other EU states,” -Orbán suggested.
He described claims by EU leaders that Russian oil and gas should be abandoned in favor of diversifying energy supplies as “hypocrisy.”
“Diversification means getting energy from as many sources… as possible.” said the prime minister. He explained that Hungary currently has two oil supply routes: the main one through the Druzhba pipeline, which transports Russian energy through Ukraine, and another that passes through Croatia.
“If supply through Ukraine is interrupted, then two routes become one. What kind of diversification is that?” -Orbán asked.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that the EU faces “a fall in industrial production, an increase in prices due to the increase in the cost of American oil and gas and a decrease in the competitiveness of European goods and the economy as a whole” due to the rejection of Russian energy.
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