Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, said Europe must not impose sanctions in connection with the war in Ukraine “with which we primarily penalise ourselves instead of those we want to sanction".
Speaking to Kossuth Radio, Gulyás said Hungarians must not be made to pay the price of war. This can be prevented “if we can continue to buy our energy at the cheapest possible price”, he added. The European Union should therefore not approve sanctions that would make it impossible for member states to import Russian oil and gas, Gulyás said. Otherwise, Hungary would have to buy this energy at much higher prices, which would make it impossible to uphold household utility price caps and the economy could not function, either, he added.
Gulyás said the EU has not approved any type of sanctions that would make it impossible for a member state to pay in roubles for Russian gas, noting that such a transaction between a state and a company is governed by an agreement subject to civil law. Gulyás said the Hungarian state was in fact not paying in roubles for Russian gas, but had opened a euro account with Gazprom Bank which converts the euros transferred to its account by the Hungarian state into roubles.
Photo credit: Facebook/Gulyás Gergely