Hungary asked US not to apply secondary sanctions against it that are aimed at Russia
The Hungarian authorities have asked the U.S. Congress not to apply to their country the law on new American sanctions, which allows for punitive measures against the main buyers of Russian oil and gas, TASS reports.
This was reported by the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Hungarian parliament, Marton Hajdu, following a trip to Washington, where he held meetings with lawmakers from the Democratic and Republican parties.
"I asked all of my interlocutors to support Hungary's efforts to further reduce its dependence on Russian energy resources and to ensure energy supplies from various sources. In addition, I made a request to help ensure that during the transition period Hungary is not subject to U.S. punitive measures concerning the purchase of Russian energy resources. We are building Hungarian-American relations on the basis of long-term interests and shared values that go beyond election cycles," Hajdu wrote on Facebook.
The committee chairman specified that he had visited the U.S. capital in the second half of last week. In July, he had already traveled there for meetings with his American colleagues and raised the question of exempting Hungary from the provisions of the new sanctions law, which at that time was still only being prepared in Congress.
On September 18, President Donald Trump signed a bill tightening sanctions against Russia, which provides, in particular, for secondary sanctions against Russia's trading partners. Under the document, the United States may impose import duties of 100% on countries that are the main buyers of Russian oil and gas. Hungary is among them. At the same time, the law allows for the possibility of an exemption from the sanctions if that serves the interests of U.S. national security.
While in Washington, Hajdu informed his interlocutors about the situation in Hungary and asked them to take into account the fact that the country is taking steps to diversify its energy supplies in order to rid itself of energy dependence on Russia. The country's new government, headed by Peter Magyar, expects to achieve this goal by 2035. The head of the foreign affairs committee believes that in this situation it "would be regrettable" if Hungary were to fall under American sanctions.
Hungary still receives most of its oil via the Druzhba pipeline, and gas via TurkStream and its branches through Bulgaria and Serbia. As the previous government of Viktor Orban noted, in 2025 more than 8.5 million tons of oil and over 7 billion cubic meters of natural gas came to Hungary from Russia.
