Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was delighted to learn last week that Russia and the United States had chosen his country as the venue for another summit on ending the war in Ukraine.
Having positioned Hungary – a European Union and NATO member – as an ally of both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Orbán was hoping to show the world that “the road to peace runs through Budapest.”
But his hopes were dashed after the Trump administration abruptly shelved plans for the Budapest summit and on Wednesday unveiled sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil producers – the first since Trump returned to the White House.
Although the sanctions aim to deplete Russia’s war chest, they could also wreak havoc on Hungary’s economy. Whereas almost all EU countries have diversified their energy mix away from Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Hungary’s dependence has deepened. Along with Slovakia, its fellow antiliberal Central European neighbor, Hungary is almost totally reliant on Russia for its oil imports.
Orbán is now reckoning with the grim consequences of his own energy policy. Alongside Washington’s oil sanctions, the EU on Thursday confirmed it would ban Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from 2027. Last month, Orbán told Trump that, without Russian energy imports, Hungary’s economy would be brought “to its knees.”
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