Hungary urges EU to pause Russia sanctions as oil prices surge

BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged the European Union to suspend sanctions on Russian oil and gas Monday (Mar 9) to counter prices sent soaring by the war in the Middle East.

Oil prices have rocketed above US$100 a barrel for the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as Iran carries out retaliatory strikes against crude-producing Gulf nations.

Orban - the Kremlin's closest ally in the EU - has repeatedly criticised sanctions against Russia, leveraging his veto power to get Hungary exempt from them and reduce European help for Ukraine.

"We must review and suspend all sanctions imposed on Russian energy throughout Europe. I have initiated this today in a letter to (European) Commission President Ursula von der Leyen" Hungary's nationalist leader said in a video published on Facebook.

He claimed Hungary's escalating row with neighbouring Ukraine over stalled Russian oil supplies has also turned into a "serious threat" to the EU as well.

Hungary, along with neighbouring Slovakia accuse Ukraine of deliberately delaying reopening the Druzhba pipeline pumping Russian oil to the two landlocked EU member states, which Kyiv says was damaged by Russian strikes in January.

Orban has been holding up a 90-billion-euro (US$106-billion) EU loan to the war-torn country and a new round of sanctions against Moscow over what he calls the "Ukrainian oil blockade".

The nationalist leader has recently ramped up political attacks on Ukraine ahead of a closely fought parliamentary election on Apr 12.

Relations hit a new low over the weekend after Hungary arrested seven Ukrainian state bank employees and seized the US$80 million of cash and nine gold bars they were transporting from Austria.