Hungary’s Orbán tells Trump that dropping Russian energy would bring economy ‘to its knees’
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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday that Hungary will continue to source fossil fuels from Russia despite demands from his ally U.S. President Donald Trump, and that he’d informed the president that dropping Russian energy would be a “disaster” for Hungary’s economy.
Hungary remains one of the only countries in Europe to continue purchasing Russian oil and natural gas following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But Trump, an admirer of the long-serving Hungarian leader, earlier this month called on all NATO countries including Hungary to cease purchasing Russian oil, since he believes the Russia-Ukraine war would end if they did so.
In comments to state radio on Friday, Orbán said he recently told Trump that that dropping Russian energy imports would be an economic “disaster” for Hungary.
“I told the U.S. president … that if Hungary is cut off from Russian oil and natural gas, immediately, within a minute, Hungarian economic performance will drop by 4%,” Orbán said. “It means the Hungarian economy would be on its knees.”
Despite three years of efforts by European Union countries to wean off of Russian energy supplies — an effort to deprive President Vladimir Putin of revenue that helps fuel the war in Ukraine — Hungarian officials have insisted that geographical and infrastructural constraints make it nearly impossible to transition to using fossil fuels supplied from the West.
However, other countries in the region, including the similarly landlocked Czech Republic, have managed to fully cease their purchases of Russian oil since Moscow launched its invasion. Slovakia, which neighbors Hungary, has also maintained its Russian energy imports.
Yet despite pressure from the EU and the Trump administration, Orbán, widely considered the EU leader with the closest relationship to the Kremlin, said Friday that when it comes to energy sources, “It is clear what is in Hungary’s interest and we will act accordingly.”
Hungary and the United States, he said, “are sovereign countries. There is no need for either of us to accept the arguments of the other. America has its arguments and interests, and Hungary does too.”