US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that Viktor Orbán had asked him for an exemption from US sanctions on Russian oil, but the request was denied.
“He asked for an exemption, but we didn’t grant it – not a single one. He’s my friend, yes,
but he asked for an exemption”, Trump said.
Earlier that day, Orbán said in his weekly radio interview that Hungary’s lack of access to the sea leaves the country dependent on oil and gas pipelines from Russia, making sanc-
tions especially difficult to comply with.
He said he intended to make this clear to the Americans in hopes of securing some leni-
ency. Orbán and Trump discussed Hungary’s energy dependence in September, with the Hungarian prime minister arguing that cutting ties with Russian energy would cause prices
to “skyrocket”.
The US recently imposed new sanctions on Russian oil giants Lukoil and Rosneft, and NATO ambassador Matt Whitaker urged countries such as Hungary, Turkey, and Slovakia to reduce their reliance on Russian energy.
While the government portrays a separation from Russian energy as prohibitively costly, experts told Telex that diversifying energy sources now would be less risky and expensive than delaying the transition.