Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto during a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium on January 22, 2024 ©  Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images

A significant number of companies in the EU continue to discreetly do business with Russia despite the bloc’s sanctions, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said.

“Here I would like to disappoint the idealists, as the situation is that everyone in Europe is doing this,” Szijjarto said in Budapest on Friday. “

The difference between us and the others in general is that we speak honestly and openly about this issue. All of Europe does business with the Russians, but some deny this; we don’t need that.”

Szijjarto added that Hungary does not agree with the sanctions, but since this is EU policy, Budapest respects them. Hungary typically vetoes specific EU proposals if they seriously harm national interests, he said, adding that developing economic cooperation with Russia is one of those interests.

The EU imposed sanctions on Moscow in 2014, and expanded them after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. The main targets are high-value sectors of the Russian economy, including energy, finance, and trade.

Hungary has long been at odds with the EU over its approach to the Ukraine conflict and its sanctions policy towards Moscow. This makes it difficult for the EU to agree on new restrictions, Euractiv reported in August, citing diplomatic sources.

Many experts in both Russia and the West have warned that unilateral sanctions bring more harm to the countries that impose them than to Russia itself.

EU officials have also acknowledged that Moscow has been successful in sidestepping the restrictions. In June, Finance Ministry data showed that Russian budget revenues from oil and gas soared by 73.5% in January-May this year, compared to the first five months of 2023.

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