The US ambassador lied. In a video, peppered with dramatic images and sound effects, the diplomatic mission in Budapest analyzes Hungarian and European energy policy. The film starts with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto's statement that Hungary's energy supply could not be secured without Russian gas, and then a number of counter-examples are given, citing the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria as countries that have "significantly reduced" their imports of Russian gas in 2023.
The video, however, fails to mention the small detail that Russian gas imports to Czechia indeed came to a near-complete halt for most of last year, but Prague returned to importing an increasing amount of gas from Russia in the final months of the year, as reported by Reuters.
The Hungarian government has decided to increase its energy dependence on Russia... at any cost,
the video claims, "proving" the statement with headlines that were published months or years ago by left-wing news portals and opposition papers.
Only Hungary's political leadership has decided to keep the country dependent on Russian energy,
says the next accusation in the video published by the embassy on Facebook.
In contrast, the Hungarian government's goal is actually to diversify gas supplies. In an earlier Facebook post, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto emphasized the importance of gas from Azerbaijan, for example.
