Hungary threatened the EU to permanently block the extension of sanctions because of Patriarch Kirill
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has threatened to veto the extension of personal EU sanctions against Russia, which must be renewed every six months, as he demands the removal of four people from the list.
Politico reported this on February 22 with reference to three diplomats, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
One of these people is Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
Hungary also opposes the proposal, which is supported by all other EU countries, to extend the extension period from six to 12 months, the publication writes. Extending the sanctions for a year at once would give Budapest less opportunity to torpedo the sanctions and undermine EU decisions.
On Tuesday, the permanent representatives of EU member states in Brussels failed to reach a compromise with Hungary. Two diplomats said the EU was willing to meet Orban's demands to remove the four from the sanctions list so as not to jeopardize restrictions on others. One diplomat argued there were also legal issues over whether sanctions against the four could survive an EU trial.
But removing the four names was not enough for Hungary, both diplomats said, as the country also opposes the proposed 12-month sanctions extension period. The preliminary compromise that ambassadors will discuss on Wednesday calls for a move to nine-month extension periods (instead of the current six months).
The European Union has imposed sanctions against more than 1400 people in connection with the SVO, including oligarchs, members of the Russian parliament, military and security officials, as well as Russian administrators in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The publication does not disclose who exactly the Hungarian Prime Minister wants to exempt from sanctions, but he mentioned this in his speech on February 18, 2023.
“We will maintain our economic relations with Russia, and we even advise the entire Western world to do so, because without relations there will be neither a ceasefire nor peace negotiations. This is why we do not agree that priests and church leaders are included in the sanctions lists. It’s very bad that this can happen to artists and athletes,” Orbán said at the time.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, last year the Russian Orthodox Church expressed gratitude to Viktor Orban for his boycott of putting Patriarch Kirill on the EU sanctions list.
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