The sixth round of EU sanctions against Russia is "difficult to give birth" again, Hungary has another monster

Earlier this week, EU leaders reached an agreement in principle on the sixth round of sanctions against Russia. Hungary also gave up its opposition to the Russian oil embargo and reached an embargo consensus with Brussels on the basis of exemption conditions. European Council President Michel Michel used Twitter to announce some details of the sanctions.

But things didn't seem to be over, with EU leaders entering into more detailed discussions on the sanctions plan in a new round of talks on Wednesday (June 1), while Hungary voted against, demanding the bloc drop its commitment to the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Kirill's personal sanctions, including blacklisting him from an asset freeze and visa ban.

The EU government envoys were supposed to translate the political agreement into legal text on Wednesday (June 1) and make it effective, but the political agreement has been put on hold again.

"The deal was put on hold because Hungary opposed the imposition of sanctions on Patriarch Kirill," an EU diplomat said.

Hungary: Absurd sanctions are harmful

Earlier, Hungarian Secretary of State Tirstan Azbej said on EU sanctions against Patriarch Kirill that the Russian Orthodox Church has about 160 million members and 40,000 priests worldwide, and the EU's crazy proposal would ban the Patriarch from entering the EU, linking local religious figures with isolated from their spiritual leaders.

He also said that while Hungary condemns Russia and supports various sanctions, Hungary supports peacemaking and believes that "counterproductive, ridiculous sanctions are harmful."

Hungary has agreed to an embargo on Russian oil, but at the insistence of its prime minister, Viktor Orban, granted exemptions for the transport of oil by pipelines linking Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

In addition, the sixth round of sanctions also includes disconnecting Russia's largest bank Sberbank from the SWIFT payment system and prohibiting ships carrying Russian oil from taking out insurance.

However, compared with the smooth sanctions in the first five rounds, the consultations on the sixth round of the plan have been going on for several weeks, which has obviously shaken the unity of the EU on its attitude towards Russia.

Not only that, after the European Union announced the Russian oil embargo, US President Biden recently said that the West is exploring the feasibility of buying Russian oil at below-market prices, rather than giving up exports.

After the West announced with great fanfare that it would abandon its dependence on Russian energy, there was no way to curb the rise in prices, and finally returned to trading Russian crude oil. This also seems to show that the West is increasingly stretched to deal with Russia.

Article source: Financial Associated Press