Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced that the United States has lifted sanctions that previously restricted the construction of the Russian-built Paks II nuclear power plant in Hungary.
According to Szijjártó, the sanctions were originally introduced under the administration of former US President Joe Biden and had complicated Hungary’s long-term energy plans.
In a statement published on June 29, Szijjártó credited current US President Donald Trump for reversing the measures, calling the decision a step toward ensuring Hungary’s future energy security.
“In light of the fact that there is now a president in Washington who considers Hungary a friend, the American government has lifted sanctions related to investments in the Paks nuclear power plant,” Szijjártó said.
This story sounds very strange, how would American sanctions determine whether Russia can deliver anything to Hungary?
On the other hand EU has strict regulation for nuclear power-plants, which last I heard, Russia does not live up to.
Also it is pretty common knowledge that USA has not enforced sanctions against Russia since Trump became president.
So the whole story lacks details about obvious questions.Anyways, if this is true, EU must quickly sanction it so EU doesn’t buy nuclear tech or any other form of infrastructure from Russia. Why would we work our ass off to stop Russian gas in 2 years, if we allow Russian built nuclear power plants?
They’re called secondary sanctions. If the US sanctions Russia, and a nation is to violate those sanctions, the US would penalize the offending nation through tariffs or embargo.
https://www.sanctions.io/blog/primary-and-secondary-sanctions-explained
But they have not been enforced since Trump became president. And obviously Russia doesn’t give a fuck, they are already sanctioned. And Hungary doesn’t give a fuck either, they have shown that very clearly, and Orban and Trump are pals, and I’m pretty sure Trump would be very happy to give Orban permission if he asked.
But in the end US sanctions against Russia have been void since Trump became president because they have not been enforced.
Then why go through the effort to renew them? They were expiring today, and he renewed them while adding an exemption for Hungary.