Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó has said that Hungary has blocked the inclusion of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in the EU’s 15th package of sanctions. “Sanctions against clergymen would deprive the last hope for peace,” Szijjártó emphasized (quoted by Magyar Nemzet). This is the second time that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has escaped sanctions thanks to Budapest’s efforts.
In addition, Hungary, which presides over the EU Council from July to the end of the year, managed to exclude the Russian Olympic Committee and Russia’s UN envoy Vasilii Nebenzia from the European Union’s latest sanctions package.
The leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, including Patriarch Kirill, have repeatedly expressed support for Russian aggression against Ukraine in their statements. The first attempts to impose sanctions against the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the EU were made back in 2022, but even then Hungary’s intervention prevented it. At the same time, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Canada separately introduced restrictive measures against the Russian patriarch.
