Hungary has a separate gas contract with Russia.
Hungary has a corrupt gas contract with Russia, under which the price of gas is many times lower than for other European countries. This was stated by Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko in an interview with Forbes.
“Hungary has a separate gas contract. The price of this contract is many times lower than prices in Europe. market. How is it? Of course, it's not easy, “he said.
Galushchenko stressed that this is an element of influence that requires certain actions from the party that receives this bonus.
“For example – not to allow Ukraine into NATO. “The same thing happened with Ukraine. Russia gave us a discount on gas, and we extended the stay of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Crimea. What is this but corruption?”, – said the Minister.
“The key thing is that Hungary is a member of the EU and must implement the collegial decisions of the Union. If one country opposes the decision of the European Union, then, in my opinion, it would be fair that this country could not count on money, programs and opportunities provided by the EU “- said the Minister.
Galushchenko acknowledged that the way out of this situation for Hungary will be problematic, and that the Hungarian government may hesitate because of the consequences of abandoning the corrupt Russian gas .
“They say their payments will increase. Yes, indeed, maybe prices will rise. And politicians should explain to voters why prices have risen. This is a burden they do not want to take on. But corruption must not be removed from the accounts.” Believe me, in some EU countries, unfortunately, there is also corruption, “he said.
Recall, in a similar situation was Germany, which, along with Hungary, is one of Russia's main lobbyists in Europe. It turned out that Gazprom sells gas to Germany three times cheaper than to European countries. This became known last summer, during a press conference by Russian President Vladimir Putin after talks with unrecognized President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.
It was Germany opposed US sanctions against the construction of Russia's Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. The then Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, said that the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline should be completed.
It later turned out that under Merkel, German refineries were in fact “occupied” by Russian business , which further cut off the country's path to independent decision-making in the energy sector.
Merkel has created economic preconditions for today's problems in Ukraine and the world, in particular – at the cost of her country's energy dependence on Russia .
