The US Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that it has imposed sanctions on a Budapest-based financial institution controlled by Russia, the International Investment Bank (IIB), which was founded in the Soviet Union to be the development bank of its Pact countries. Warsaw.

In 2019, the bank moved its headquarters from Moscow to the Hungarian capital at the invitation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria left the EFTA following the Russian military invasion of Ukrainian territory in February 2022. Hungary is the only remaining EU and/or NATO member of the institution.

The imposition of sanctions was announced simultaneously by the US Treasury Department and the US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman.

“Hungary’s choice to host the bank — on EU and NATO soil — raises huge concerns,” Mr Pressman told reporters at the US embassy.

For its part, the Treasury Department in Washington said in a press release that the bank’s presence in Budapest alone allows Russia to “expand its espionage activities in Europe” and paves the way for Moscow to exert “malign influence.” » in central Europe and the western Balkans.

The sanctions announced yesterday also target three top executives of DTE, two Russians and one Hungarian.

Among other things, the sanctions mean that any accounts and resources linked to the institution or its officials in the US jurisdiction will be frozen, while the persons imposed the punitive measures are prohibited from entering the US territory.

US sanctions have a paralyzing impact on the activity of financial institutions, given the central role of the US in the international banking and financial system.

Mr Orban, a nationalist populist politician, continues to maintain good relations with Russia. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó visited Moscow just yesterday, Tuesday, to sign contracts related to the supply of energy. It was Mr Szijardo’s fourth trip to Russia since the war broke out in Ukraine.

Yesterday Wednesday, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik visited Budapest at the invitation of Mr. Szijjártó.