Hungary

Leaked recordings purportedly showed Hungary's Foreign Minister offering to send his Russian counterpart an?document on Ukraine's European Union membership, as the latest sign of Budapest's warm relationship with Moscow. The audio 'clips' released by a group of investigative news - outlets, including VSquare.org, were the latest of a series leaked conversations purporting to show that Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary has been working to serve Russian interests while undermining EU efforts to help Ukraine. Orban, who has ordered an investigation after Orban's previous statement that wiretapping his calls was "a huge scandal", was unable independently to verify the authenticity....

Hungary's headline inflation in March rose by 1.8% from a year ago, but was below expectations. Government measures to curb fuel price increases due to the Iran war appear to have had their desired effect. The market had predicted a 2.2% rise. Analysts had predicted an average annual core inflation rate of 2.3%. Poland and the Czech Republic both had similar results, where price increases accelerated but were below analyst expectations. The soaring energy prices caused by the?Iran war are a major concern for central bankers in the region, and have led to a halt in monetary easing measures being...

JD Vance, the U.S. vice president, slammed the European Union on Tuesday for its "disgraceful interference" in an election held in?Hungary. He also praised Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his role as an ally to Donald?Trump when it comes to the defence of Western civilization. Here are some key quotes from the joint press conference in Budapest. VANCE ON HUNGARIAN ELSECTION "What happened in this country and what happened during this election campaign is one of worst examples of foreign interference in elections that I have ever read or seen ..." "The bureaucrats at Brussels have tried to destroy Hungary's...

The 'Iran War' sent fuel prices soaring in March, but the headline figure was still below?predictions and the 2% central bank target. According to preliminary data released by the statistics office on Tuesday, the?headline?figure increased 1.9% from a previous year in March, which is faster than February's 1.4%. According to a poll, analysts had predicted 2.0%. The data revealed that consumer prices increased 0.6% month-over-month, with a rise of 5.3% in energy prices, including motor fuels. After?the government took steps to reduce energy bills, the global oil price shock came at a time of low inflation in the Czech Republic....

According to the preliminary results from 'the state election commission', based on?the most votes?counted?, the right-leaning Slovenian Democratic Party and liberal Freedom Movement were tied at Sunday's parliamentary elections in Slovenia. Even with their existing coalition partners, neither party appeared likely to win the 46 seats required for a majority of the 90-seat Parliament. This makes smaller parties who cross the 4% threshold potentially kingmakers. SDS won 28 seats. Based on 99.45% counted votes, GS was in a close race with SDS. With the support of the other parties, GS, led by the incumbent Prime Minister Robert Golob, would have...

Oil prices spiked due to the war in Iran, and for now this has halted any monetary easing efforts by emerging market central bankers from Poland to Turkey. This is because policymakers are coping with an increase in inflation expectations as well as a rise in risk aversion. After a series of shocks, from the COVID outbreak to Russia's invasion in?Ukraine, that have shook markets, slowed growth, and fueled inflation, central banks are finally becoming more optimistic about global economic resilience?and easing price pressures. The dollar gained ground, and U.S. Treasury Yields rose as a proxy of borrowing costs in...

According to correspondence seen by, the management of a Russian owned oil refinery located in Germany privately warned Berlin that U.S. Sanctions were hurting their business and threatened fuel supplies for the capital and region. In a letter sent to Katherina Reiche in January, the management of Rosneft's PCK Schwedt refinery made an "urgent" appeal to her to resolve the standoff between the United States and the refinery. The letter details the escalating issues at the refinery which supplies fuel to Brandenburg, eastern Germany, and nine out of ten cars in Berlin. It also supplies key chemicals and ingredients for...

Italy announced on Monday that Venezuela had released Italian citizens Alberto Trentini?and Mario Burlo?from prison. It also pledged to "upgrade its relations with Caracas" in response. After Venezuela released two Italian citizens, Biagio Piieri, a journalist, and Luigi Gasperin a businessman, last week, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed that no other citizens with only Italian nationality were still in prison. Hundreds of dual nationals, both Italian and Venezuelans, are still being held. Venezuelan leadership announced on January 8, that it would release a large number of prisoners including foreigners, as a gesture. After the U.S. captured Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro,...

Three sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that MOL, a Hungarian oil company, has informed U.S. officials of its interest in purchasing international assets from sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil. This adds to a growing number of potential buyers. In October, the United States imposed sanctions against Russia's largest private oil producer as part of its efforts to press Moscow to end their war in Ukraine. This forced Lukoil into announcing the sale of foreign assets. Sources have confirmed that Lukoil has been in talks with oil majors Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Middle Eastern investors before the December...

Orban's chief said that the Hungarian prime minister will meet Donald Trump in Washington on November 7, where he hopes to discuss a way forward for a U.S. -Russia summit and to seek an exemption from U.S. sanctions on energy. Gergely Gulyas said at a press conference that the two leaders will also sign agreements of co-operation on the fields energy, defence, economy, and finance. He said that "some of these have been already negotiated while in other cases, discussions are still underway." Orban said previously that he wanted to sign a wide-ranging economic agreement with Washington in order to...

The only refinery in Serbia will only continue to operate until November 25, as new crude oil deliveries have been stopped due to U.S. sanction against the Russian-owned plant operator NIS. This was reported by Tanjug News Agency on Wednesday, citing the energy minister. NIS, of which Gazprom, Gazprom and the Serbian Government each own 44.9%, operates the only refinery in Serbia, located in Pancevo. The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury placed initial sanctions on Russia's petroleum sector on 10 January and gave Gazprom a 45-day deadline to sell its NIS holdings. The sanctions had been...

Peter Magyar, the leader of Hungary's opposition party, has asked Russia to refrain from interfering in its politics. He said that there was no way for meaningful co-operation without respecting his country's sovereignty. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service published a statement earlier this week in which it described Magyars as loyal to the "globalist elites", and claimed that the European Commission is considering "regime changes in Budapest." Magyar's Tisza Party, which is ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz at the polls in the majority of polls before the parliamentary elections next spring, has published an open-letter to Russia's ambassador...

The?Russian state nuclear corporation, whose?boss spoke on 'Tuesday' after the Hungarian 'Prime Minister elect Peter Magyar claimed that the price was too high, is prepared to defend its 'price tag' for a project to expand Hungary’s only?nuclear facility. The project, worth 12.5 billion euros ($14.75billion), was awarded without competition to Rosatom of Russia. It has been seen as a symbol for the close relationship between President Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban who is leaving office after losing a weekend election to Magyar. Magyar stated on Monday that Hungary will review the situation and may even cancel the expansion if it...

The companies confirmed that Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear power company, has released Siemens Energy from its contract to?help build Paks II in Hungary. This confirms an earlier report on the news website Politico. Rosatom informed?that it had terminated the contract with the firm?at the?end of 2025 because its?inability? to meet its contractual obligations. Siemens Energy stated that there were no sanctions in place at the time of termination, and that it fulfilled its contractual obligations in compliance with all national and international laws. It said that "at the time when the fulfillment would have made sense, the customer had...

Hungarian Foreign Ministry Peter 'Szijjarto' said that the first concrete pour at Hungary’s Russian-built nuclear plant Paks 2 was on Thursday. This officially made it a.nuclear facility under construction. Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy company, will build two new reactors under an agreement signed in 2014 between Budapest and Moscow. Hungary wants to expand Paks by adding two Russian VVER reactors. Each VVER has a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. The 12.5 billion Euro project, which was awarded to Rosatom without a tender, is often cited as proof of the warm relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and?Hungarian Premier Viktor...

Analyst ExPro reported on Monday that Ukraine's imports of electricity jumped by 40% between December 2025 and January 2026, to a new record?894 Gigawatt Hours. This was due to the constant Russian attacks against Ukraine's energy system. This is the highest amount of imports during the full-scale war. Hungary still accounts for the biggest share, 45%. The consultancy reported that overall, the supply increased in all directions except Moldova. Russia's attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector have intensified in recent months. Power stations, energy distribution systems, and gas sector installations are all being targeted. consecutive attacks On the generating and thermo...

Hungary will sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. This includes a deal for American nuclear fuel, and U.S. technologies to store spent fuel in a Russian nuclear power plant. The deal is expected to be signed when U.S. president Donald Trump sits down with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban for talks later on Friday. Both leaders are expected to discuss Hungary’s dependence on Russian oil. Peter Szijjarto, Foreign Minister, said: "We will be signing a major agreement intergovernmental on cooperation in the nuclear energy sector with Marco Rubio my colleague as a foreign minister." Hungary has maintained...

The EU's highest court ruled on Thursday that the European Commission shouldn't have approved Hungarian aid to expand its Paks nuclear plant by a Russian firm, as the Commission hadn’t checked whether the contract complied with EU rules. As part of a bilateral agreement between Russia and Hungary regarding the peaceful use nuclear energy, Hungary awarded the contract directly to Nizhny Novgorod Engineering of Russia. The Russian government then provided Hungary with an official loan to help finance the majority of the construction of the new reactors. In 2017, the European Commission also approved the project. In 2018, Austria, a...

Hungary has made a major step in importing technology for small modular reactors by partnering up with Poland's Synthos Green Energy. Synthos Green Energy holds the central European rights to GE Vernova Hitachi technology. Hunatom, a Hungarian firm that develops nuclear energy in Hungary, signed a letter with Synthos. Synthos is the project developer of BWRX 300 reactors for this region. Peter Szijjarto, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that this agreement was about initiating technological, infrastructure, financial and legal preparations needed to bring American nuclear technology into Hungary. GE Vernova Hitachi, a joint venture of General Electric and...

The European Commission will continue talks with Ukraine on natural gas materials to Europe and will consist of Hungary and Slovakia in these talks, according to a declaration shared by an EU diplomat and seen by Reuters on Monday The statement was read out to EU ambassadors on Monday. early morning ahead of a meeting of foreign affairs ministers who will discuss the rollover of Russia sanctions, which need to be restored every six months. Hungary has actually been holding up the renewal of the bloc's. sanctions on Russia, the renewal of which needs to be through a. unanimous vote....

Renewable energy producer Rezolv Energy and British tidy power financial investment firm Low Carbon have actually secured loan centers of up to 291 million euros ($ 314. million) to finance the construction of an onshore wind farm in. Romania. The consortium of lenders included Erste Group, UniCredit. Group, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Advancement, as. well as the International Finance Corporation, Intesa Sanpaolo. Group, OTP Bank, Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Garanti. BBVA Romania. The first stage of the so-called VIFOR project in north-east. Bucharest will set up 192 megawatts (MW) of capacity and should. come online before the...

Hungary's federal government signed an accord with Belarus to assist build Hungary's second nuclear plant, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a. statement in Minsk on Wednesday. Hungary's PAK 2 reactor has actually been under building and construction by. Russia's Rosatom considering that 2014. The Russian business is building 2. reactors with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts each at PAKS 2 in. main Hungary. Of terrific value is the agreement signed here today. on nuclear energy cooperation, which enables us to utilize the. experiences Belarus got here while constructing reactors with. a comparable innovation, Szijjarto said, without offering even...

Sweden is expected to officially sign up with NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia's intrusion of Ukraine forced a total reassess of its nationwide security policy and the realisation the alliance provided the best assurance of security. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is in Washington to hand over the final documents, with the White House saying in a statement ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address that Sweden would join on Thursday. Having Sweden as a NATO Ally will make the United States and our Allies even safer, the declaration said. The Swedish government...

Sweden signed up with NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia's. invasion of Ukraine forced it to rethink its nationwide security. policy and conclude that assistance for the alliance was the. Scandinavian nation's finest guarantee of security. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson turned over the final. documents to the U.S. government on Thursday, the last action. in a dragged out process to secure the backing of all members to. sign up with the military alliance. Advantages concern those who wait, U.S. Secretary of. State Antony Blinken said as he got Sweden's accession. documents from Kristersson. Blinken said everything...