Hungary asked the U.S. to make an exception in sanctions against Gazprombank
Hungary has asked the United States to make an exception to the sanctions against Gazprombank for payments for gas from Russia. This was announced by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on December 4.
According to him, he discussed the topic with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the margins of a meeting of NATO diplomatic heads in Brussels.
"I told the US secretary of state that we have sent a request to the relevant US authorities to make an exception to sanctions for Gazprombank when making payments for natural gas," Sijjarto told reporters at a press conference, a recording of which was published on the minister's Facebook page (owned by the recognized extremist company Meta, its activities are banned in Russia).
The diplomat noted that such an exception can not be called unusual, because several Russian banks have it to pay for uranium supplies to the United States.
The day before, Szijjártó said that Hungary has no alternative to gas supplies from Russia. He called calls by EU leaders to abandon them political propaganda.
Gazprombank was added to the US sanctions list on November 21. Szijjártó then emphasized that the move threatens the energy security of Central Europe and Washington is deliberately acting in this way. He emphasized that Budapest considers it an encroachment on sovereignty.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said afterward that Russia was working on retaliatory measures. He called completely blocking measures against Russia impossible and promised that a solution would be found soon.
Financier Denis Astafiev explained that Gazprombank had not been sanctioned for a long time because it was important for payment for energy supplies to Europe. The payments were made on an exceptional basis for the stability of the European energy industry. Washington's step will cause more damage to it than to the Russian energy sector, the expert said.
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