Trump grants Hungary one-year exemption from Russian energy sanctions

By Christian Edwards, Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from US sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas, a White House official told CNN Friday, after Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met the US President in Washington.

For months, Trump has berated European Union countries for continuing to buy oil and gas from Russia, saying this helps fuel the Kremlin’s war machine and prolong the war in Ukraine that he has been at pains to end.

But when Orbán – whose country buys more Russian oil and gas than any other EU nation – showed up at the White House on Friday, Trump was full of praise for the “great leader” of a “great country,” claiming it has been “difficult” for Hungary to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels, since it is landlocked.

For Orbán, a darling of the MAGA movement, the carve-out has spared Hungary from the violent economic shock it was facing after the Trump administration last month put sanctions on two Russian oil giants. Before those sanctions were announced, Orbán had told Trump, his longtime ally, that cutting Russian energy supplies would bring Hungary’s economy “to its knees.”

The exemption for Hungary will raise questions about the Trump administration’s seriousness in enforcing its sanctions on Russia’s oil exports. Analysts warn that Trump’s cutting his allies some slack will embolden others to try to circumvent US sanctions, eroding their ability to inflict economic pain on Russia and hasten the end of its war in Ukraine.

“The US decision is a terrible and unnecessary mistake that will allow over 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to flow into the Kremlin’s war chest,” Isaac Levi, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), told CNN. “By carving out special treatment for Hungary, Washington is telling other buyers that they can keep handling Russian oil and still expect to be let off the hook.”

Levi also questioned the Trump administration’s rationale for the exemption, pointing to how the Czech Republic, another landlocked country, manages without Russian crude oil and has lower fuel prices at the pump than Hungary. “This clearly shows that the oil flows that continue to finance Putin’s war in Ukraine are entirely unnecessary,” he said.

Orbán is also hoping that Trump might re-open the door to a summit with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, which the US president announced last month, but which was soon shelved. Trump said Friday that his team was talking with Orbán about meeting with Putin.

In a press conference before the lunch with Orbán, Trump expressed sympathy for Hungary’s energy insecurity since “they don’t have ports, and so they have a difficult problem,” he said. The president added that he was “disturbed” that other European countries that “don’t have those problems” were continuing to buy “a lot of oil and gas from Russia.”

But Hungary and neighboring Slovakia are the only EU countries still receiving oil from Russia, via the Druzhba pipeline. In the wake of Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, EU countries moved to phase out Russian oil, but granted an exemption to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – three countries heavily reliant on Russian imports – to give them time to reduce their reliance.

Instead, Hungary and Slovakia used the exemption to deepen their dependence. Hungary upped its dependence on Russian crude oil from 61% pre-invasion to 86% in 2024. This year, Russia accounted for 92% of Hungary’s crude oil imports. Slovakia, meanwhile, is “almost 100% dependent” on Russian crude oil, according to a report from CREA, and the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD).

The report said phasing out Russian oil is “fully feasible” for Hungary and Slovakia, as the Adria pipeline in Croatia “can meet their combined needs.” Orbán, however, denied this, claiming that the Croatian government would need to enlarge the pipeline to meet Hungary’s needs.

Although EU countries have continued to buy Russian gas, funneled via Turkey through the TurkStream pipeline, Russia’s share of EU gas imports fell from 40% pre-invasion to 11% in 2024. Last month, EU countries agreed to ban all imports of Russian gas from 2028. Hungary and Slovakia opposed the ban.

In an analysis published before Trump’s meeting with Orbán, the Atlantic Council said the White House should be “clear-eyed about the fact that, despite Trump’s chumminess with Orbán, he has been the roadblock to the action the United States is demanding from Europe.”

But, using talking points that have helped win him Trump’s affection in the past, Orbán claimed Hungary, as a “Christian” country that has taken a hard stance against immigration, is a “special island of difference in a liberal ocean in Europe.”

Orbán praised Trump for repairing what he described as damage caused to the US-Hungary relations by the Biden administration, which imposed sanctions on Hungary largely to punish Orbán for democratic backsliding. The Trump administration has since removed some of those sanctions.

“Now we are (in) quite a good position to open up a new chapter – let’s say a golden age – between the United States and Hungary,” Orbán said.

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