The United States will not make an exception for Russian oil at Hungary’s request, President Donald Trump said while speaking to reporters on 31 October.
Thus he answered the journalists’ question about how he responded to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s request for this.
“He (Orban – ed.) asked for an exception, we did not grant it. He is my friend, he asked for an exception,” he noted.
US sanctions imposed on 22 October against Rosneft, Lukoil and more than three dozen of their subsidiaries automatically impose restrictions on all structures in which Rosneft and Lukoil have a stake of 50% or more. Georgia is already discussing whether Lukoil Georgia falls under these US sanctions.
Hungary depends on Russia for oil and gas imports. Unlike many of its EU neighbours, who worked to reduce their dependence on Russian energy resources after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Hungary has since increased its purchases.
That dependence could now pose a risk to Hungary’s energy security from U.S. sanctions against major Russian oil producers-a move that aims to bring Russia to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine.
Budapest has tried to convince the U.S. administration that Hungary’s landlocked status leaves it no choice but to rely on Russian oil, despite an alternative oil pipeline connecting Hungary to the Adriatic Sea via Croatia.