EU gives companies green light to buy gas from Russia
Al JazeeraAPR 2022
Orban's Kremlin ties are straining the relationship between Hungary and the rest of the EU's western alliance. They're holding the bloc's ability to deliver effective punitive sanctions on the Russian economy hostage, even though the EU's foreign policy chief has questioned the inconsistencies in Hungary's claims about the cost of the embargo.
Hungary has been clear from the start that energy sanctions are a red line, as they would decimate the economy. An embargo on Russian oil would demand the complete modernization of the nation's energy system and bring an era of economic recession that would only prompt migration and spiralling economic downturns for the rest of Europe. The Hungarian people must not be made to pay the price of the war.