Budapest opposes the EU sanctions policy, but supports the 19th package of sanctions against Russia, as it does not directly harm the Hungarian economy. This was announced by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is participating in the EU summit in Brussels.
"This package of sanctions, although it is a continuation of the policy of restrictions, which was fundamentally wrong, does not harm Hungary. We always negotiate in such a way that even if new packages of sanctions are adopted, they will not have a negative impact on our country," the head of government was quoted as saying by Magyar Nemzet newspaper. Orban also noted that as a result of the conflict in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, the Hungarian economy suffered a loss of 20-30 billion euros.
The prime minister did not rule out that Hungary will look for ways to circumvent the ban imposed by the EU on the supply of oil and gas from Russia and will continue to oppose this decision.
"There are sanctions against some Russian oil companies... We are working to circumvent them," Orban said on Kossuth radio station's morning program.
According to him, he discussed this issue with the management of the Hungarian MOL company, which uses Russian oil in its oil refineries.
