Export opportunities and billions of dollars have been lost by Budapest since the European Union imposed economic sanctions on Russia, says Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
Talking to RTVi television channel on Wednesday, he said that “since [the EU] imposed sanctions, a total of $8.5 billion had been lost.”
“Russia was our second-largest trade partner before the sanctions. Of course, we lost many export opportunities,” Szijjarto added.
Also on rt.com Sanctions cost European economies $240 billion while Russia lost $50 billion – PutinHungary has never violated the European unanimity on sanctions and will not do so in the future, he said. “Even though we always promote honest dialogue, sanctions significantly complicate our work from the political and economic point of view.”
The EU introduced economic sanctions against Russia in 2014, accusing Moscow of involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia responded with retaliatory measures. In September, the EU prolonged for six months individual restrictive measures against 170 Russian citizens and 44 legal entities of Russia and Ukraine.
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