Hungarian Prime Minister Warns of Consequences If Europe Rejects Russian Energy
Europe could decouple from Russian energy, but that would be an illusion, because Russia cannot decouple from the rest of the world, Russian energy will find other buyers and Europe will be the victim, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on M1 TV channel.
"Of course, Europe can decouple from Russian energy, but this is really an illusion and will not work, because Russia cannot decouple from the rest of the world. Russian raw materials will be bought by others, and we will suffer from war inflation and lose our competitiveness," Orban said in his annual speech in the Romanian city of Baile Tusnad.
According to him, before the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the EU paid 300 billion euros per year for oil and gas, and in 2022 this amount reached 653 billion euros.
The head of the Hungarian government also reiterated that Western companies are in no hurry to leave Russia: out of 1.4 thousand Western companies, only 8.5% have left the Russian market, the rest have paid taxes of $ 3.5 billion.
Earlier, Orban said that Europe was losing by rejecting Russian energy sources in favor of American energy, because Europe was forced to pay 5-10 times higher prices. According to him, Europe should ask its "American friends" who won in this situation.
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