US embassy slams Hungary over reliance on Russian energy

The US Embassy in Hungary criticized Viktor Orban's government for increasing the country's energy dependency on Russia, publishing a video with footage from a meeting between the Hungarian prime minister and Vladimir Putin on social media. Importantly, this is not the first such incident.

"Only one country in the Western world is not decreasing but increasing its dependence on Moscow," writes the US Embassy, not mentioning Hungary by name but presenting the text against the backdrop of photos from Orban's meeting with Putin, which took place in October in Beijing.

The embassy cites Finland and Bulgaria as examples of countries becoming independent of Russian energy. "Western democracies do not want to be dependent on Putin, a war aggressor who blackmails them with energy" reads the statement. The video also shows footage of the Russian military parade and the presentation of a high state award to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

While Hungary remains the only EU country that is 100 percent dependent on Putin's Russia for nuclear fuel, the United States is adopting regulations aimed at ending the import of Russian uranium. Hungary's dependence on Putin is a choice, and a dangerous one – the US embassy wrote.

Hungary is heavily dependent on Russian energy resources. It imports 4.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually under a 15-year contract with Gazprom, signed in September 2021. Additionally, it imported 5 million tonnes of oil through the Friendship pipeline last year, and the Russian state-owned company Rosatom is expanding Hungary's only nuclear power plant in Paks in the central part of the country.

This is not the first time the US embassy in Budapest has sharply criticized Orban's government's policies – note Hungarian media. After the Hungarian prime minister visited Moscow at the beginning of July as part of a so-called "peace mission", ambassador David Pressman assessed the initiative as "very damaging to Hungary and its relations with allies".

The diplomat also criticized Budapest's close relations with Beijing during the May visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Budapest. Previously, he had spoken out multiple times when the Hungarian parliament delayed approving Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO.

Since the beginning of Joe Biden's presidency, Hungarian-American relations have remained tense. Orban and his associates openly support the Republican Party candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential elections in the US in November.