BERLIN, March 13. /TASS/. The current European energy crisis will not end without Russia’s help, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said, adding that the EU strategy aimed at isolating Russia has failed.
"America is already negotiating with Russia and has allowed India to import Russian oil again. Brussels, on the contrary, does not want to know anything about the suspension of sanctions against Russian energy," Orban said in an article he contributed to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
"However, without profitable Russian oil and gas, we will not be able to overcome this crisis. It is obvious that the concept of isolating Russia and economically bringing it to its knees, passing new sanctions all the time, did not lead to the cessation of hostilities [in Ukraine]."
He said the implementation of "this European strategy, which was accompanied by the rejection of direct negotiations with Russia," continued even when the United States under President Donald Trump stopped military and financial support to Kiev.
"The collapse of this European strategy should call into question a lot - especially now, as the situation in the Middle East has worsened since the outbreak of the war, and our European competitiveness is suffering significantly again," Orban continued. He warned of the threat of losing "millions of jobs" in Europe.
The Hungarian prime minister noted that Europeans have been suffering from this situation for four years. "They are enduring rising energy prices, they are enduring ever-rising gasoline and diesel prices, and they are enduring the destruction of Europe's once powerful industry on the altar of a war you cannot win," he said.