WASHINGTON, November 21. /TASS/. The U.S. Treasury has issued a license that allows transactions related to the Hungarian Paks-2 nuclear power plant to be conducted with several Russian banks, the Office of the U.S. Treasury for Foreign Assets Control said.
As follows from the document, financial transactions are allowed to the central bank, Gazprombank, VEB.RF, FC Otkritie, Sovcombank, Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, Rosbank, PJSC Bank Zenit, Bank Saint Petersburg, and National Clearing Center. It says that the general license prohibits opening correspondent accounts, and debiting funds from the accounts belonging to the central bank, the National Welfare Fund or the Russian Finance Ministry in American financial institutions.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington had removed Paks-2 nuclear power plant from sanctions until its full completion, because it wants Budapest to be energy-independent.
In November 2024, the United States imposed sanctions on Gazprombank, through which payments were made between Hungary and Russia for oil and gas supplies, as well as for the construction of the second stage of Paks. Moscow and Budapest had to look for alternative payment methods. In January, the United States imposed large-scale sanctions against the Russian oil and gas sector, as well as the leadership of Rosatom, including its CEO Alexey Likhachev.
Currently, Paks, built by Soviet specialists in the 1980s and powered by Russian nuclear fuel, accounts for half of all electricity generated and a third consumed in Hungary. The station, located on the banks of the Danube River 100 km south of Budapest, has four power units with VVER-440 reactors. The construction of the second stage of the NPP, the fifth and sixth power units, is underway. After the commissioning of two new VVER-1200 nuclear reactors, the capacity of the Paks complex will increase from 2,000 MW to 4,400 MW.