Hungary Opposes EU's Attempt to Prolong Review of Russia Sanctions Up to One Year

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The European Union has made an attempt to increase the period of review of the sanctions lists against Russia from six months to a year while discussing the 10th sanctions package, but Budapest did not support it, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"But we were sticking to the methodology that the sanction list and/or delistings must be reviewed every six months. There was attempt to prolong it to 12 months, but we rejected that to stay at six months," the minister said.

Szijjarto also said that the European Union will continue to try to impose sanctions on Russia's nuclear industry, but Hungary will never agree to this.

"We had to fight a lot, and we will have to fight a lot in the future, as far as I see the developments, in order to keep the nuclear out of the sanctions regime. Some fellow member states of the European Union are desperately putting initiatives on the table to sanction [Russian state nuclear corporation] Rosatom, to sanction associates of Rosatom, leaders of the company and to restrict the nuclear cooperation between Russia and EU," the minister said.

"This is something that we would never agree with. This is something that we will definitely veto in case such kind of points are being included into any kind of sanction measures," Szijjarto added.

The minister noted there were "strong attempts" to include Russia's nuclear energy sector on the sanctions lists in the course of the development of the 10th sanctions package against Russia, but Budapest has "not let it happen."

Some member states of the European Union would definitely like to see Russia's nuclear sector on the sanctions list, the minister said, adding that Budapest has made it very clear that this option was absolutely unacceptable for Hungary.

"If we cannot continue the construction of Paks II [nuclear power plant], then we will lose the most important pillar of the guarantee for our long-term energy security. And once again, I think energy should be totally left out of sanctions, given the fact that energy is a physical issue that has nothing to do with either politics or ideology," Szijjarto noted.

According to the minister, the EU planned to impose sanctions against Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov as part of the 10th package of restrictions, but Hungary opposed the idea.

"We have also raised our voice against Russian ministers to be put on the list. For example, Minister Manturov. Because if Russian ministers are on the sanctions list, then to whom we are going to talk to about peace, to whom we're going to talk to about how to end the suffering of the people," Szijjarto said, noting that Manturov "was supposed to be there but we have always raised our voice and he was taken off from the sanctions."

Hungary has taken this position "not because of the Russians, not to be misunderstood" but because "this is right," the minister said, adding that Budapest finds it "very unfair when we are being judged as if we were propagandists of Kremlin, because we are just simply representing what we think is rational."

On Thursday, the European Union once again failed to agree on the 10th sanctions package against Russia, with discussions set to continue on Friday.