Hungary Gets Its Badly Needed Russian Energy Exemption After Warm Trump-Orban Meeting

In a hugely significant, though not totally unexpected development, President Trump has exempted Hungary from sanctions over its continued purchases of Russian oil and gas for a period one year, according to a BBC report, citing a White House official.

The news follows Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Friday trip to the Washington where he was hosted for a state visit in the Oval Office. After being received very warmly by the US president, Trump conceded “it’s very difficult for him [Orban] to get the oil and gas from other areas”.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó soon followed with a message on X declaring the US had given Budapest “a full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas.”

But that’s when a White House official told press agencies that it would not be unlimited as Budapest was claiming, but was issued for a one-year period.

Late last month the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed its latest sanctions on Russia’s largest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil – after Trump had for months delayed this move amid hopes of finding a speedy ceasefire in Ukraine – but has expressed frustration and essentially given up on this, it appears.

Hungary’s Foreign Ministry had at the time immediately proclaimed in the wake of that US action, “We are working on how to circumvent this sanction.“ 

Still, Orban and Trump have long seen eye to eye on blasting ‘warmongers’ in the EU. Trump alluded to this Friday in stating, “He [Orban] understands Putin and knows him very well… I think that Viktor feels we’re going to get that war ended in the not-too-distant future.”

Orban for his part claimed Hungary is the only US ally in Europe which truly wants lasting peace in Ukraine, and with Russia. “All the other governments prefer to continue the war because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the front line, which is a misunderstanding of the situation,” Orban said Friday.

Trump at one point asked him: “So you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?” To which Orban replied: “You know, a miracle can happen.”

Below: Another interesting moment of shared vision on immigration problems…

Hungary’s Viktor Orban: “We are the only gov in Europe that considers itself a modern Christian gov. All other govs are, in fact, liberal, left-wing governments”

Trump later warned Europe: “There will be no Europe if they don’t stop illegal migration.”

pic.twitter.com/FOQOuQVh5a

— Ben Leo (@benleo444) November 7, 2025

This new one-year exemption for Budapest comes after during the Biden administration Washington and Brussels for years sought to cut off Europe from Russian oil and gas. This meant Hungary would likely be forced to buy more expensive US-produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) – as much of the rest of Europe has done.

But Orban’s consistent position has been that as a logistically-challenged, landlocked country it has little choice but to stick with its traditional dependencies in terms of energy sourcing, and that it can’t just immediately diversify without tanking the entire national economy.