This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. According to him, the countries blocked the decision in response to the European Commission’s plans to phase out imports of russian energy resources, reports the Telegram channel “Radio Svoboda”.
“Today, together with Slovakia, we prevented the adoption of the 18th sanctions package. We did it because in this case, EU countries, including Hungary and Slovakia, would be prohibited from buying russian natural gas and cheap russian crude oil”, - Szijjártó told journalists following the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
A meeting of the permanent representatives of EU countries is also taking place in Brussels, where the composition of the new sanctions package is being discussed. The European Commission proposes to include in the 18th package restrictions against the russian gas pipelines “Nord Stream 1” and “Nord Stream 2”, as well as to lower the price cap on russian oil from $60 to $45 per barrel. In addition, around 80 vessels from russia’s so-called shadow tanker fleet could fall under sanctions.
The previous, 17th sanctions package was approved on May 20. It included nearly 200 vessels, 75 individuals and legal entities, including “Surgutneftegaz”, the machine tool holding “Stanko” (a Rostec subsidiary), the insurance company VSK, the Main Radio Frequency Center, and the head of KamAZ Sergey Kogogin.
Earlier, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico called Volodymyr Zelensky “an enemy” of Slovakia and stated that buying russian gas was a “realistic” option.