Potential Hungarian buyout of sanctioned Russian oil companies also discussed by Orbán and Putin

According to Novak, speaking to Interfax, the agenda for the Putin-Orbán meeting in Moscow included a scenario in which

Hungarian players – primarily Mol Nyrt., according to Russian media reports – could purchase the Balkan and Romanian assets of Russian oil companies.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that the Hungarian side is already working on the transaction, the fate of which depends on commercial negotiations, and which they

wish to carry out quietly, without much publicity.

In the background, there are also plans for Mol Nyrt. to acquire a stake in Serbian NIS, which is owned by Gazprom Neft and subject to US sanctions, while Lukoil, which was added to the US sanctions list in October, is forced to look for buyers for its Bulgarian and Romanian networks.

The Moscow summit ended at noon on Friday, but few details of the bilateral talks were made public. Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin mentioned the main topics in brief statements, and Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook that

We achieved what we came for.

One of the main points of the discussion was the possible location of the peace summit: according to Szijjártó, Putin assured the Hungarian delegation that if such an event were to take place, it would "without a doubt" be held in Budapest.

Another key area of the meeting was energy cooperation, and Novak also appeared at the talks on this issue. The Hungarian side, however, did not mention the possibility of buying out Lukoil and Gazprom Neft, but only reported that Russia was ready to fully meet its contractual obligations regarding oil and natural gas deliveries, and that the agreed quantities would arrive according to the agreed schedule.

Szijjártó emphasized that Orbán had agreed with the US president during his previous talks in Washington that Hungary could continue to purchase Russian energy sources and that Washington would grant it exemption from sanctions, although there is no official record of this in the OFAC system as yet.

The Hungarian government also agreed to accelerate the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant during the Moscow talks.

According to the foreign minister, all technical preparations for the Paks II project are proceeding according to schedule, and the first concrete pouring could take place on February 5, for which a specific date has now been set for the first time. The message of the meeting is thus twofold: while Hungary would like to take its energy cooperation with Russia to a new level, in the background, Russian oil companies' regional assets could also fall into Hungarian hands.

Cover photo (for illustration purposes only): MTI Photo/Prime Minister's Office Communications Department