Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that some countries will not be able to substitute Russian gas with the more expensive American alternative.
The Hungarian PM argued that a landlocked country such as Hungary, won’t be able to receive liquified gas from the US, thus leaving Russian gas as their only option for gas.
Orban who has come under fire several times from Ukraine and its supporters for refusing to take a definitive stance against Russia, made these statements while speaking to local radio station Kossuth on Friday.
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Orban reiterated that Hungary condemns Russia’s attack against Ukraine, and that he understands the efforts of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as his country is in trouble and he is looking out for Ukrainian interests, but stated that Hungary “can’t help the Ukrainian people by destroying itself.”
This war is not our war, we can’t win here, but we can lose everything. The question is will we have an economy left by the end of it or not.
Earlier in the month, Orban said that Hungary is intent on looking out for its own interests first and will maintain a “Hungarian point of view,” but emphasized that “it must be made clear to the Russians that it is not worth pursuing this war,” warning at the same time that Europe should avoid hurting itself “more than the Russians.”
In one of his statements on Friday to the local radio station, he said it’s impossible for Hungary to “turn off cheap Russian gas and buy expensive American energy instead,” adding that it is not viable for Europe to count on the transportation of sufficient volumes of liquified gas from the US across the ocean, and that there is no alternative to Russian supplies in the near future, for Hungary in particular.
Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February during a meeting with President Putin, Hungary requested an increase in natural gas imports from Russia under a bilateral long-term contract.
Orban said then, on 1 February, that he requested an expansion of Hungary’s 15-year gas contract with Russian energy company Gazprom to ensure larger-volume deliveries amid rising energy prices in Europe.
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, signed the 15-year natural gas supply deal with Gazprom in September, under which the Russian state-run gas giant pledged to ship 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Hungary annually through lines that bypass Ukraine.
Unlike other EU countries, Budapest has so far refused to either send weapons to Ukraine, or allow other countries to move shipments through its territory.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
