Szijjártó posts from Moscow announcing preparations for Paks 2 cement work

The Hungarian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó arrived in Moscow on Tuesday. Prior to this, the minister had been in Istanbul for the first joint meeting of the Turkish-Hungary Joint Consultation Mechanism. The meeting was attended by foreign ministers, defence ministers, national security advisors, and leaders of defence industry companies. He flew to Moscow from there, accompanied by a business delegation. According to Szijjártó, the reason for the visit is that US President Donald Trump will end the war in Ukraine. He continued:

"The sanctions will not be with us forever, so we must be ready to take a good starting position in the new season. That is why we are going to Moscow now with a large business and corporate delegation."

According to our information, representatives from Mol, MVM, and Richter will also be part of the delegation. Investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi explained the presence of energy company executives in his Tuesday post, saying that the main topic of Szijjártó's trip to Moscow (his 17th since the Russian invasion) is Hungary's acquisition of part of the Serbian Oil Company (NIS), which is currently majority-owned by Gazprom and subject to US sanctions.

"The essence of the potential Hungarian assistance, which has been rumoured for weeks, is that a Hungarian company – for example, MOL – would acquire just enough shares from the Russians to reduce the Russian stake in NIS to below 50 per cent, which would be enough to avoid sanctions."

We sent questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking who would be travelling to Moscow, but we have not yet received a response. You can read more about the possibility of Hungarian ownership in NIS here.

Early in the morning, Szijjártó posted on Facebook from Moscow that Father Danyiil had celebrated Mass and prayed for peace with part of the delegation at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, home to Moscow's Catholic community.

Szijjártó also reported on some more or less specific results:

According to him, the preparations for the first cement pouring for the construction of the Paks 2 nuclear power plant is progressing faster than expected, so the installation of reinforced concrete will begin as early as next week rather than in January.

"The cement plant is now operational, we have already poured 500 square meters of concrete, waterproofing is ongoing, so instead of next year, we will start installing the reinforcing steel next week, well ahead of the original schedule. This will guarantee that the first layer of concrete will be in place by early February."

Szijjártó sought to dispel concerns surrounding the TurkStream pipeline, which transports gas between Russia and Hungary. As we also reported, over the weekend, the Amsterdam District Court seized the assets of South Stream Transport, a Turkish subsidiary of Gazprom that operates the pipeline. According to the foreign minister,

the company has begun relocating from the Netherlands to Hungary, and its operations are not being hindered by any sanctions.

Furthermore, Russia has agreed that Hungary will continue to "pay for gas in a manner not affected by sanctions".

From Moscow to Moscow

Viktor Orbán was the first to mention on Saturday that a large business delegation would be travelling to Moscow in the coming days. The Prime Minister told said that they would be discussing economic cooperation specifically, because, in his opinion, it is necessary to think ahead, as the war and the sanctions will come to an end.

We have previously reported that a Hungarian party buying out assets of Russian oil companies affected by US sanctions was also discussed at the November summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. On November 27, Reuters reported that Mol may acquire a stake in Serbia's NIS, which is also subject to sanctions.

In December, three sources familiar with the matter also told Reuters that Mol was interested in purchasing the foreign assets of the sanctioned Russian oil company Lukoil. According to one source, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán may have discussed this with US President Donald Trump during his visit to Washington in November. Lukoil owns several European refineries and gas stations, as well as oil production assets in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, which Mol would like to acquire, according to one source who requested anonymity. We previously wrote in detail about why Mol may have a good chance of acquiring these assets.