Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in Italy for meetings with his counterpart Giorgia Meloni and leaders at the Vatican, told reporters on Monday he would travel to the White House soon to discuss sanctions on Russia, which he argued disproportionately hurt Hungarians.
Orbán took questions outside of his meeting with Meloni, describing his priority in conversations with her to be discussing ways to improve the European economy. He described European states as “totally out of the game” regarding any influence on peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, predicting only Moscow and Washington could find an end to the ongoing invasion, so he was not planning to discuss the war much with the Italian head of government.
Asked repeatedly about President Donald Trump’s decision to impose more sanctions on Russian fossil fuel companies, Orbán stated that the sanctions could result in skyrocketing energy prices in his home country and he intended to explain the situation to Trump personally.
“I will be soon in Washington and we will discuss it,” Orbán said in English. “What I’m thinking about how we could make a bearable system for the Hungarian economy, because Hungary depends on very much the Russian oil and gas, without having the prices running up to the sky and we would have serious shortages.”
Asked if he considered that the sanctions went “too far,” Orbán replied, “from a Hungarian point of view, yes, so we try to find a way a special treatment for Hungary.”
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica, which was part of the report scrum Orbán engaged, quoted Orbán as saying that the sanctions were a “mistake” and that he would convince Trump to “lift” sanctions – but the full video of the exchange shows that Orbán never said such a thing. La Repubblica appears to have entirely fabricated the quote: “Trump is wrong about Putin, I’m going to him to get him to lift the sanctions.” While it appears in the headline of the story, the Italian newspaper did not insert this false quote into the transcript of the exchange with the Hungarian leader.
Orbán’s political director, Balazs Orbán, published video of the full exchange.
Asked what he would discuss with Meloni, Orbán said, “I think the most important point of discussion with your prime minister is the future of the European economy because, on the war, there are very few things we could do.”
“We handed over the possibility to settle this war to the Americans and to the Russians,” he continued. “Unfortunately, Europe does not play a role … we are totally out of the game, so there is not too much [of a] point to be discussed about it.”
President Trump announced a significant escalation in sanctions on Russia last week targeting. Rosneft and Lukoil, two of Russia’s most profitable oil companies. The sanctions were an abrupt shift away from the conciliatory tone that Trump showed towards Russia just days prior, following a phone conversation with strongman Vladimir Putin. On October 16, Trump confirmed the conversation with Putin and expressed optimism that Putin would soon concluded his 11-year war of conquest in Ukraine. After a conversation between their top diplomats, Trump announced, “President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”
Orbán, who has consistently called for negotiations to address Russia’s demands in Ukraine and end the active hostilities in the war, expressed elation at participating in the summit, declaring, “for three years, we have been the only country that has consistently, openly, loudly, and actively advocated for peace.” Russia walked back its commitment to the meeting, however, resulting in Trump indefinitely postponing it and imposing sanctions on the Russian oil companies, instead.
The Hungarian prime minister has repeatedly challenged the sanctions, arguing that Hungary is too dependent on Russian oil and gas to abide by them without causing substantial economic damage to its population.
“Indeed, there are sanctions against some Russian oil companies… We are working on how to circumvent those sanctions,” Orbán said last week. “We continue to fight. This battle is not yet lost.”
Trump administration officials have made clear that they expect Hungary to find an alternative to Russian oil, as the continued profits to Moscow are funding the war and keeping Russia from serious advances towards ending the invasion.
“Hungary, unlike many of their neighbors, has not made any plans or made any active steps,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker, said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “So we’re going to continue to work with them and we’re going to work with their neighbors like Croatia, and other countries that can help them wean themselves off.”
“There’s a lot of planning that our friends in Hungary should do and we’re going to help them obviously, as a good ally,” he added, “to make those plans and execute them to get them off of Russian oil and gas.”
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