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Hungary's move to buy gas sidestepping Ukraine stems from friction with Kiev, says expert

According to the director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, the development of the situation will lead to Ukraine being deprived of part of the gas transit after 2024 when the contract with Moscow ends

© EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT

KIEV, September 29. /TASS/. Hungary’s new, long-term contract with Gazprom for the supply of gas bypassing Ukraine is justified, among other things, by long-standing bilateral discord between Kiev and Budapest, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics Ruslan Bortnik told TASS on Wednesday.

"The contract with Gazprom should be viewed as a natural consequence of long-term friction between Ukraine and Hungary," he said. "Hungary responded sharply to the closure of Hungarian-language schools in Ukraine, blocked Kiev's cooperation with NATO and the European Union, there was a difficult dialogue allegedly regarding Hungarian separatism and the distribution of Hungarian passports in the Trans-Carpathian Region," the political guru noted. In addition, he believes that the contract with Gazprom was the result of "Russia’s lobbying."

That being said, the expert pointed to Budapest’s objective reasons for obtaining gas while sidestepping Ukraine. "Hungary, like Germany with the Nord Stream 2 scenario, does not see any guarantees of safely receiving energy resources through the territory of Ukraine in the midst of the Donbass war and the ongoing political instability [there]," he said.

According to Bortnik, the development of the situation will lead to Ukraine being deprived of part of the gas transit after 2024 when the contract with Moscow ends.

Nonetheless, he noted that Hungary will also suffer losses. "Now Budapest is incurring additional losses: since the direction of gas transit changes, Hungary will have to rebuild the entire transit system, and that costs a lot of money," Bortnik added.

Despite all these factors, Kiev is unlikely to be able to change the situation. "Ukraine does not have any significant instruments of influence on Hungary. To some extent, Kiev may turn up the heat on Hungarian civil organizations, business, media, or political representatives in Ukraine, but this will only give Hungary another reason to block Ukraine's progress in EU and NATO," Bortnik forecasted. At the same time, he admitted that bilateral dialogue could be revived "through reducing the price of transit, through resolving passport and language issues, and returning to dialogue with Germany and Russia."

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