Russian Ambassador announced open channels for dialogue between Budapest and Moscow

Russia has classified Hungary as unfriendly because Budapest has joined Western sanctions, but channels for dialogue remain open. This was stated by Russian Ambassador to Hungary Yevgeny Stanislavov in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“Budapest demonstrates a pragmatic position, which is not going to give up even under pressure from its allies in the EU and NATO,” the ambassador said.

He assured that the political course of the Hungarian leadership is based on the desire to protect their interests.

“To some extent, Budapest succeeds,” said Stanislavov. The ambassador added that Hungary has joined the Western sanctions packages, so the Russian leadership has included this country in the list of countries unfriendly to Russia, against which Moscow can retaliate.

In December 2022, Hungary secured an exemption from the application of the Russian oil price ceiling , which was agreed upon by the G7 countries, the EU and Australia.

“During the negotiations on the oil price ceiling, we fought a lot for the interests of Hungary and in the end we succeeded: Hungary was exempted from the application of the oil price cap,” wrote then the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, Péter Szijjarto.

He also expressed the opinion that it is "long overdue" for Brussels to realize that such measures harm the European economy. According to Szijjártó, it is necessary to increase the supply of energy carriers, as this can reduce prices.

In January 2023, after negotiations with the Minister of Defense of Austria, Claudia Tanner, the head of the Hungarian defense department, Krysztof Salay-Bobrovnicki, confirmed the refusal of both countries to supply weapons to Ukraine. “The position of Hungary is clear: we do not supply weapons to the conflict zone because we want to avoid its escalation, and in this respect our position coincides with the position of Austria. Neutral Austria also does not send weapons to the war zone,” the Hungarian minister said.

Prior to this, the State Secretary of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry for Bilateral Relations, Tamas Menzer, published a statement on the actions of the Ukrainian authorities in Transcarpathia in relation to the Hungarian community. He called them unacceptable and condemned them.

“Anti-Hungarian decisions and actions are, of course, unacceptable, we condemn what happened. We call on the local authorities to immediately stop the atrocities against the Hungarians. We call on the state authorities of Ukraine to immediately do everything to cancel the anti-Hungarian decisions and restore the previous state,” he said.