On the same day that the EU announced a multi-million euro loan to kyiv, which will be paid with frozen Russian assets and which has eluded Hungary, the ultra-nationalist government of Viktor Orbán has rolled out the red carpet for a Kremlin envoy in Budapest. The visit of the Russian Minister of Health, Mikhail Murashko, to participate in a bilateral economic cooperation forum in the Hungarian capital represents the umpteenth challenge to Brussels by Orbán and the confirmation of the close ties he maintains with Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Murashko is responsible for Russian diplomacy de facto in meetings with friendly countries in the community bloc. Brussels has sanctioned 1,206 Russian citizens and more than 108 organisations “for undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”, but Murashko is an exception and performs diplomatic duties that correspond to the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, who has been banned from entering the European Union.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó defiantly stated in an appearance alongside Murashko that “the whole of Europe is doing business with the Russians, they are just trying to hide it.” “The difference is that we do not hide it,” added the minister, whose government holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council.
Szijjártó said his country respects EU sanctions against Russia – whose negotiations to agree on them it has systematically torpedoed – but he defended strengthening ties with Moscow in sectors where there are no restrictions. “It is in the economic, strategic and national security interest to develop economic cooperation between Hungary and Russia in areas not affected by international sanctions,” said the minister. Hungary’s largest publicly traded companies remain active in Russia, such as the OTP credit institution, the Mol refinery and the Gedeon Richter pharmaceutical company.
Budapest has not only been reluctant to reduce its imports of Russian gas, but last October it signed new contracts with Gazprom. Szijjártó, who has travelled frequently to Russia and Belarus since the war in Ukraine began, met for three hours on 30 August with the CEO of the Russian energy company, Alexei Miller, who is under sanctions by the US and the UK for his role in the conflict. This Friday, Hungary and Russia agreed to deepen their agreements to “boost regional gas trade”.
The minister promised the 78 or so companies participating in the Hungarian-Russian Business Forum “all the support they need to do business with Russia” and “a solution to facilitate the entry of their goods into Russia.” The international spokesman for the Hungarian government, Zoltán Kovács, also announced agreements on higher education, which will include an annual Hungarian-Russian rectors’ conference and a new university alliance, as well as 200 Russian students receiving scholarships each year in Hungary.
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These announcements come just days after the EU demanded further explanations from Budapest for granting visas to Russians and Belarusians. Brussels believes that, in the context of the war in Ukraine and with the threat of interference from Moscow throughout the EU, these permits facilitating the entry of Russian citizens endanger the security of the Schengen area of free movement.
Ties with the Kremlin
Murashko’s trip to EU territory further strains the tension between Hungary and the rest of its European partners. Orbán opened his six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union with a surprise visit to Moscow to meet Putin. The trip did not have the blessing or mandate of Brussels, which demanded explanations from the national-populist prime minister. Orbán repeated to Putin that he was travelling “on a mission of peace” – the same words he used on his previous trip to the Kremlin just before Moscow invaded Ukraine by land, sea and air in February 2022.
This is the second time that the Russian health minister has made an official trip to the EU member state in just over a year. Murashko met with Szijjártó in July 2023 under the pretext of an international conference of the World Health Organization, although Moscow acknowledged at the time that its envoy discussed with the Orbán government the “economic cooperation” between the two countries despite the sanctions imposed by Europe.
The health minister was appointed in January 2020, just before the Covid pandemic broke out, and remains in office despite coronavirus restrictions being used not for health reasons but to ban any kind of demonstration in Russia, even individual pickets, by default for years. Although he does not appear on the huge list of Russian officials sanctioned by Brussels due to the invasion of Ukraine and political repression inside Russia, he is banned by Canada, Australia and kyiv.