RT-Engels: 29-06-2025,
Washington has issued a general license allowing Russia’s Gazprombank to resume transactions related to Hungary’s Paks-2 power plant project
The US has lifted sanctions that barred financial transactions via Russia’s Gazprombank related to Hungary’s Paks-2 nuclear power plant. A general license issued by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday grants Gazprombank and a host of other Russian banks permission to conduct transactions “related to civil nuclear energy.”
Paks-2, launched in 2014 under a bilateral agreement, involves two reactors constructed by Russia’s Rosatom and includes a €10 billion ($11.7 billion) Russian loan to cover most of the estimated €12.5 billion cost. The project, deemed critical to Hungary’s energy security, was scheduled to start last year near the existing Paks NPP, the country’s only nuclear power station, which supplies about half of the nation’s electricity. However, US sanctions on Gazprombank – through which the project was financed – forced construction to pause. Budapest repeatedly appealed to Washington for a waiver.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto confirmed on Sunday that the US has now lifted the restrictions.
“The US made numerous decisions on political grounds that placed our country in an extremely difficult situation,” Szijjarto said in a statement. “One of these decisions sought to undermine Hungary’s energy supply by imposing restrictions on the construction of the Paks-2 NPP, making it virtually impossible for construction to continue.”
He added that “fortunately,