U.S. grants Hungary, Turkey loophole for Gazprombank payments
Gazprombank (Photo: ОСР / Twitter)
The United States has granted exemptions from its sanctions against Gazprombank for both Hungary and Turkey to ensure that gas payments can still be made, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency wrote on Dec. 20, citing Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto's statement.
The exemptions allow both countries to continue paying for Russian gas supplies through the sanctioned bank.
According to the Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, Ankara has held a “series of talks” with U.S. officials to resolve the issue.
On Dec. 6, Bloomberg reported that the European Union was pressing the United States to find ways to ease sanctions on Gazprombank, a key institution for Russian natural gas supplies to the EU.
On Nov. 21, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Gazprombank, one of Russia's largest banks. Gazprombank processed payments from European countries for Russian gas and maintained access to the SWIFT interbank payment system, from which many other Russian banks were cut off after the invasion of Ukraine.
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