Russia relaxed about possibly increasing French role in Hungarian nuclear project

How did we get here?

• Hungary inked a deal with Russia years ago to have Rosatom build two new blocks for the country's sole nuclear power plant, with Moscow providing a EUR 10 billion loan to Hungry to finance 80% of the Paks II project;
• Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and the EU has imposed sanctions on Moscow in ten rounds of restrictions so far;
• As a result, Germany is now withholding an export permit for Siemens Energy;
• Siemens Energy and France's Framatome are to provide the control system for Paks II;
• There was speculation that with the German 'blockade' the role of Framatome could increase in the project;
• There was also speculation that the sanctions and Framatome's increasing weight would come at the expense of Rosatom and even that the state-owned Russian company could be replaced.

Russia's Ambassador to Budapest Evgeny Stanislavov told Ria Novosty that they are not concerned that Framatome's possibly larger role in the provision of the control system for Paks II would be detrimental for Rosatom.

There are no such fears. German and French companies have been selected to manufacture part of the equipment for the nuclear power plant and are now ready to fulfil this lucrative order. The problem is that the German government is delaying issuing the necessary permits, using various fabricated pretexts.

The ambassador raised the issue that Berlin is blocking the delivery of control equipment under the influence of green activists, despite the fact that modern nuclear power plants have proven to be safe and environmentally friendly.

Therefore, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjártó quite rightly called the blocking of the Paks II process control system as an interference in Hungary's sovereignty,

he added.

What was not mentioned in the interview, however, was what Szijjártó had also said earlier, that the control system for nuclear power plants could be subject to EU sanctions as dual-use technology, and that this could be the reason why the German government is reluctant to grant the necessary licence to Siemens Energy.

In another part of the ambassador's interview, which was published in several parts, Stanislavov said, among other things, that "Budapest has a pragmatic position, which it will not give up even under pressure from EU and NATO allies". He then went on:

To a certain extent, Budapest succeeds in this, but the fact remains that Hungary has signed all of the anti-Russian sanctions packages of Brussels and is forced to strictly comply with them. That is why it is considered an unfriendly country towards Russia, against which our retaliatory measures can be applied.

The news flow regarding the Paks II project coincided with Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó recently reaching an agreement with the Russian Deputy Prime Minister on the Turkish Stream and the Friendship oil pipelines, after the government had also held talks with Serbia and Turkey on the matter in recent days.

According to the Ambassador, the sanctions are having an increasingly negative impact on all areas of cooperation between Russia and Hungary, including economic, political, cultural and human relations.

"Lately, the normal life of the Russian Embassy has been suffering more and more. But we remain optimistic, and even despite this, we are striving for constructive cooperation with Hungary and will keep the channels of dialogue open to preserve the package of positive developments accumulated over the past years," stressed Stanislavov.

Cover photo: MTI/Noémi Bruzák. Evgeny Stanislavov, Ambassador of Russia to Hungary, speaks at the commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Holocaust Documentation Centre on 27 January 2022.