U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Nov. 12 that Hungary was granted a one-year exemption from sanctions on Russian oil and gas to prevent destabilizing the Hungarian economy.
"It's a very small piece of what Russia sells," Rubio told journalists while departing a G7 meeting in Canada.
"It's almost all of what they (Hungary) buy, and it would be deeply destabilizing in Hungary for them to lose access to those energy resources."
This contradicts a statement by the Hungarian government, which claimed it had received an exemption for an unlimited period.
The waiver was announced after a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Washington last week, although uncertainties about the exemption's duration persisted.
Orban, who maintains warm ties with both Trump and the Kremlin, has argued that Hungary needs Russian pipeline oil and gas to maintain low prices and a stable energy supply.
Unlike most other European leaders, Orban has maintained close contacts with Moscow during the full-scale war in Ukraine while repeatedly blocking aid to Kyiv and sanctions against Russia.
The Hungarian leader flew to Washington shortly after the Trump administration slapped sanctions on Russian energy companies Rosneft and Lukoil to pressure Moscow into accepting a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Rubio also confirmed that the U.S. is not interfering in the expansion of a Hungarian nuclear power plant by a Russian company.
"We want them to be able to complete it because we want them to be energy independent," the chief U.S. diplomat said.
The Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom is constructing two new nuclear reactors at Hungary's Paks nuclear power plant as part of the "Paks II" expansion project.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said already in June that the U.S. had decided to lift sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against the nuclear station's expansion.
After the meeting between Trump and Orban, Budapest announced that Hungary would buy U.S. nuclear fuel for the plant.
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