According to Hungary, ten European countries have opened accounts in Russia to pay for gas

“- We cannot impose sanctions that primarily punish ourselves, and not those we want to punish, said Gergely Gulyás, head of the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office.

In an interview on Sunday with state-owned Kossuth, Rádió Gulyás stated that besides Hungary, nine other European countries have also opened Russian bank accounts to pay for gas under the scheme proposed by Moscow.

- Hungary has opened an account in euro, which is filled in by the payment for gas in euro, and then the bank converts it into rubles. (...) Nine other countries outside of us do it, but they don't say they did the same, simply because now in Europe, "being good to Europe" means that country leaders are not speaking honestly to their citizens and community international - said the head of the law firm Viktor Orbán.

Gulyás argued that the European Union has not adopted any sanctions that would make it impossible to pay for Russian gas in rubles. He called on the Community not to adopt sanctions that would prevent the import of Russian oil and gas, and to reverse its earlier decisions in this regard. 

Otherwise, he said, Hungary would have to source these raw materials "at much higher prices". - We cannot impose sanctions that punish ourselves first of all, and not those we want to punish - he said.

European energy companies can open special accounts with Gazprombank to pay for Russian gas, without breaking sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU, if transferring euros or dollars to these accounts meets their obligations under contracts with Gazprom, reads the position of the German Ministry of Economy.

Earlier that some European gas importers from Russia agreed to the payment scheme proposed by Moscow, but "they do not speak about it honestly and spread false information about Hungary's position with the help of Western media," - argued Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. However, neither he nor Gulyás revealed which countries allegedly opened accounts with Gazprombank.

According to unofficial information, EU member states may approve a new package of sanctions, including an oil embargo, as early as next week. On Sunday, the German DPA agency announced that Berlin supports the introduction of a ban on Russian oil imports, and that this solution is being hampered by Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Spain, Italy and Greece. "