To deal with the backlash from the embargo it decreed against Russian hydrocarbons, in June the European Union devised a procedure for storing and distributing the fuel amassed by those countries that were granted a temporary waiver, allowing them to continue to buy directly from Russia.

During the first three months of the war, the EU bought 57 billion euros worth of oil, gas and coal from Russia. Today only the Czech Republic and Hungary are direct customers of Russia.

However, in the case of Hungary – which reviles the dominant narrative of the Ukraine war, condemns the embargo and has even obtained a waiver – it does not intend to share the gas which it buys from Russia at the preferential rate negotiated by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán because of his good relations with Moscow. Its Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó even went so far as to compare the European political arrangement to the organization of the Soviet economy.