Budapest rejects new sanctions against Moscow. With good reason: it has become totally dependent on Russia in the energy sector. Not only in the gas but also in the electricity sector.
As an opposition politician, Fidesz leader Viktor Orbán sharply criticized the government’s new gas supply contracts with Russia in 2008. At the time, he spoke of a dangerous development in terms of security policy. Today, in the midst of a war of aggression by the Russian army against Ukraine, his government is banking on expanding energy cooperation with Moscow and is blocking EU sanctions in the areas of oil, gas and nuclear energy. “If the new sanctions package affects the energy sector, we cannot support it,” Orbán’s chancellery minister, Gergely Gulyás, warned on Thursday.
In the future, Russia will even dominate the Hungarian electricity sector. Around half of the electricity used in the country comes from nuclear energy, for which Moscow is already providing all the components from the reactors to the fuel rods. A third is generated by gas-fired power plants, which are also dependent on Russia. With a share of twelve percent, renewable energy currently plays a subordinate role.
As recently as August, the Hungarian authorities approved the construction of two new reactors at the Paks nuclear power plant, 110 kilometers south of Budapest. The contract for the construction was signed in 2014 with the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom. At the time, opposition circles said that there had been no transparent tender. The contract provides for the construction of two third-generation Russian VVER-1200 reactors, which are now being certified for the first time in the EU. The lion’s share of the project will be financed by a loan from Russia in the amount of ten billion euros. 2.5 billion will be paid by Hungary itself.