BUDAPEST, Hungary — BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 As the European Union pushes to fully sever its reliance on Russian energy and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump urges NATO members to abandon Russian oil, one country’s populist government stands firm.<\/p>\n
Hungary and its leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, have long argued Russian energy imports are indispensable for the country’s economy and switching to fossil fuels sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n, who has long had the friendliest ties to the Kremlin of any EU leader, has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine<\/a> in February 2022, and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war. <\/p>\n As the rest of Europe has weaned off Russian energy, Hungary has maintained, and even increased, its Russian imports, insisting no viable alternative exists. <\/p>\n But some energy experts \u2014 as well as Orb\u00e1n’s critics, who see his commitment to Russian energy as a symptom of his affinity for President Vladimir Putin<\/a> \u2014 say the Hungarian leader’s position is more about politics than pipelines.<\/p>\n Hungary’s leaders argue its landlocked geography in the heart of Central Europe make it dependent on Russian fossil fuels delivered by pipelines built while Hungary was under Soviet dominance. <\/p>\n With no alternative sources and infrastructure to bring oil and gas to Hungary, officials say, the country’s economy would cease to function without Russian supplies. <\/p>\n \u201cIf Hungary is cut off from Russian oil and natural gas, then immediately, within a minute, Hungarian economic performance will drop by 4%,\u201d Orb\u00e1n told state radio in September. \u201cThis would be catastrophic, the Hungarian economy would be on its knees.\u201d<\/p>\n But L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Mikl\u00f3s, a chemical engineer and energy industry analyst, told The Associated Press there was \u201cno rational explanation\u201d for Orb\u00e1n’s government’s reluctance to seek alternative fuel sources and ample infrastructure is already in place to supply Hungary with affordable, non-Russian oil and gas. <\/p>\n \u201cDisconnection from Russian energy in an integrated European market should not be a problem, all conditions are there. It’s the intention that is missing,\u201d Mikl\u00f3s said. <\/p>\n EU countries moved quickly to slash their imports of Russian oil and gas after Russia invaded Ukraine, instituting an embargo on Russian oil<\/a> in 2022 and, this year, announcing a proposal to gradually stop the import of all Russian gas and oil<\/a> into the bloc by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n Yet as the EU sought to deprive Putin of revenue that helps fuel the war, it also granted a temporary exemption for supplies delivered by pipeline to three landlocked countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.<\/p>\n That carve out, Mikl\u00f3s said, has allowed the Hungarian government and the national oil and gas conglomerate MOL to take in major windfall profits and deliver billions of dollars to Russia’s budget. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople think that Hungary purchases Russian energy for economic benefit. This is wrong,\u201d said Mikl\u00f3s, who previously served as MOL’s director of corporate relations. “Hungary buys Russian energy because the Hungarian government wants to help Russia arm itself … MOL and the Hungarian government’s significant profits are a side effect of that.\u201d<\/p>\n The EU’s push to cut Russia off from energy revenues has sparked fury from Hungary’s leaders, who portray the steps as misguided and ideologically motivated. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is quite astonishing that the leaders of European countries … are unable to see that each country\u2019s geographical location determines where it can purchase energy sources,\u201d Hungarian Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 said in a September social media post. \u201cWe can dream about buying gas and oil from places that are not connected by pipelines, but we cannot heat our homes, boil water or run factories with dreams.\u201d <\/p>\n Despite insistence that a lack of infrastructure precludes a transition to non-Russian energy sources, other countries in the region, similarly landlocked, have brought Russian oil first to a trickle, then to a stop.<\/p>\n