U.S. embassy condemns Hungary's reliance on Russian energy

The United States Embassy in Hungary has criticized Viktor Orban's government for increasing the country's energy dependence on Russia, sharing a video on social media with footage from the Hungarian Prime Minister's meeting with Vladimir Putin.

"Only one country in the Western world is not decreasing but increasing its dependence on Moscow," writes the American embassy. Although it did not name Hungary explicitly, it presented its text against the backdrop of images from Orban's meeting with Putin, which took place in October in Beijing.

The embassy provided examples of Finland and Bulgaria as countries striving to become independent of Russian energy. In its statement, it said: "Western democracies do not want to be dependent on Putin, a war aggressor, who blackmails them with energy."

The video also showed footage from a Russian military parade and the awarding of a high state decoration to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

The US Embassy noted that Hungary is the only country in the European Union that is 100 percent dependent on Russia for nuclear fuel. On the other hand, the United States is passing legislation aimed at ending the import of Russian uranium. "Hungary's dependence on Putin is a choice, and a dangerous one" wrote the American embassy.

Hungary is heavily reliant on Russian energy resources. Each year, it imports 4.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas under a 15-year contract with Gazprom, which was signed in September 2021. Additionally, last year, it imported 5 million US tons (4.5 million metric tonnes) of oil via the Friendship pipeline. The Russian state corporation Rosatom is expanding Hungary’s only nuclear power plant in Paks, located in the central part of the country.

This is not the first time that the American embassy in Budapest has expressed its dissatisfaction and criticized Orban’s government policies, Hungarian media note. After the Hungarian Prime Minister's visit to Moscow at the beginning of July, as part of a self-proclaimed "peace mission," Ambassador David Pressman assessed that Orban's initiative "harms Hungary and its relations with its allies immensely."

Ambassador Pressman also criticized Budapest’s close relations with Beijing during Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to Budapest in May. He has previously spoken out multiple times when the Hungarian parliament delayed approving Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO.

Pressman, who is homosexual, actively supports the LGBTQ+ community in Hungary by participating, among other things, in the annual Budapest Pride parade.

Meanwhile, Orban's government defends a conservative definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. According to a law passed in 2021 in Hungary, the display of "homosexual content" to minors in the media is prohibited. It is also banned in school educational programs.

Relations between Hungary and the United States have been tense since the start of Joe Biden's presidency. Orban and his associates openly support Republican Party candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming November presidential elections in the United States.