Online Reporter
The Trump administration just lifted sanctions on a Russian-led nuclear project in Hungary, specifically one run by Moscow’s atomic energy titan, Rosatom.
“The administration of President Trump has lifted this sanction. This made it possible to guarantee the safety of Hungary’s energy supply in the long term. Finally, there is a kind of presidential administration in the United States which respects the reality of the map, takes it into account,” said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
“We are not a country with a large number of oil and natural gas factories surrounded by dry land. Thus, our sustainable, cheap and safe electricity supply can only be provided by nuclear energy.”
Translation: “Listen up, you overcaffeinated Brussels bureaucrats running this group project from hell. We were just fine running on Russian oil and gas until you snatched it away like a juice box from a toddler. Now you’re scolding us for not pulling new energy out of thin air? Fine. We’re going nuclear. With Russia.”
Enter Paks 2, Hungary’s next-gen nuclear project, pronounced “Paksh” as in “Paksh me another reactor, Vladimir.” This Rosatom-led deal was frozen under Biden-era sanctions. Now with Trump back, Hungary’s firing it up again.
Hungary’s original Paks plant already supplies half the country’s electricity. Paks 2 will boost that to 70 percent by the 2030s and replace 3,5 billion cubic metres of gas annually – or enough to power Brussels’ virtue-signaling and moral-outrage generators for a week. It would also slash Hungary’s carbon emissions by 17 million tonnes, which theoretically should earn Budapest a climate gold star from Brussels.
But a few weeks back, Hungary smelled another bad idea brewing in Brussels. This time, it was sanctions on nuclear fuel. Because when you’re already dealing with a self-imposed gas crisis, the next logical step is obviously to kneecap your nuclear options, too.
“If the European Commission and Brussels banned Central European countries, including Hungary, from purchasing fuel from Russia, this would have tragic consequences not only for Hungary, but for the entire European energy market,” Szijjarto warned back in May of the nuclear fuel side-eye.
Meanwhile, in Brussels, EU leaders have been busy crafting their 18th round of Russia sanctions. That’s right – 18. The sanctions now have more sequels than the Fast & Furious movie franchise. At this rate, someone should build a sanctions-themed roller coaster and amusement park. Then it could just stay closed under the pretext that it’s too expensive to power.
And while EU politicians perform their best moral-grandstanding monologues on the world stage, European companies are sneaking around backstage making nuclear deals with Russia anyway. Leading the pack is France’s Framatome, which is co-partnering with Rosatom on the very same Paks 2 project.
Framatome’s role has actually expanded thanks to Germany kneecapping itself, as has become routine. The Greens in the previous coalition government blocked Siemens Energy’s involvement. Just what German industry needed – another self-inflicted wound. And Framatome isn’t just supplying the process control systems for Rosatom. The two have also signed a broader deal to produce nuclear fuel – in Germany. Don’t mess this up, Berlin! Spoiler alert: Odds are pretty good that it probably will.
If EU sanctions kill this Franco-Russian partnership, it’s Germany that takes yet another hit. Also, you have to wonder why exactly Washington would do the EU a favour here. The US sees Europe as a competitor on the global economic stage. Maybe lifting sanctions on the Russian-led Paks 2 project is a strategic way of letting American nuclear giant Westinghouse steal Europe’s lunch, just like it did when the EU was egged on to sanction its own Russian gas supply — and replace it with American LNG.
Back in March, Szijjarto met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and “discussed the possibilities for developing Hungarian-US energy cooperation, with nuclear energy as the primary area of interest,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook. ”We are interested in developing this technology in a partnership with Westinghouse,” he added.
So maybe Washington dropping sanctions on Paks 2 is less about Hungary and more about making it OK to date Russia again — so Washington can swoop in and steal Europe’s date to the prom.
But you wouldn’t know any of this listening to the Eurodolts running the show. America is eyeing a European industrial asset, and Brussels’ reaction is apparently to consider retreating to a monastery of moral anti-Russian purity so Washington can have its way.
“The European Union is also expected to adopt an 18th sanctions package in the next few days. Unprecedented in its ambition and the measures it contains in the financial and energy sectors,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in late June. – RT.com
