Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called a decision by Ukraine to remove OTP from the International Sponsors of War list “a step in the right direction”, and said the Hungarian bank’s inclusion had been “unfounded, deceitful and laughable”, on Wednesday 4 October.
Hungary’s top diplomat said he invited representatives of the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) to Budapest to discuss a deal to guarantee that OTP Bank would not be included on this list in the future. “If a reassuring agreement is reached, then we will of course have to consider what steps this justifies on our part,” Szijjarto said.
Szijjarto warned that Hungary “will find it very difficult” to agree with the EU on new sanctions against Russia due to Ukraine’s inclusion of OTP on the list of sponsors of war.
Hungary denied OTP operated in Donetsk
In May, the NACP announced that it included OTP Bank on the list of sponsors of war because of the decision of the bank’s management to continue operations in the Russian Federation and its de facto recognition of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
However the Hungarian politician said it was unfounded claim that OTP was a decisive player in Russia’s banking system when the bank’s market share was only 0.17%. The claim that OTP was operating in Donetsk was “laughable”, he added.
The prospect of OTP returning to the list remains a cause for concern, and “that’s why we’ve asked the Ukrainian ambassador … to bring an NACP delegation to Budapest to negotiate an agreement.”
Hungary FM wants further removals from blacklist
Szijjarto added that the NACP also maintained a list of proposed sanctions and this still included OTP’s Russian unit and four Hungarian bankers. “We expect that the four OTP leaders and the Russian unit will also be removed from the Ukrainian anti-corruption agency’s list,” he said.
Earlier, the NACP removed the Hungarian OTP Bank from the list of international sponsors of war to unblock half a billion euros from the EU military fund.
As OTP’s status as an international sponsor of war has been suspended, five Greek shipping companies accused of illegally transporting Russian oil have also been removed from the NACP blacklist.
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