Hungary has repeatedly tried to set the record straight about not being the biggest buyer of Russian energy. Now, they are getting some support from an unlikely source: Greenpeace.
In a September report titled “The LNG Trap,” which relies on tanker tracking data out of Refinitiv, Greenpeace calls out France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands for buying €34.3 billion of Russian liquefied natural gas between 2022 and June 2025. Meanwhile, during this same period, these countries handed Ukraine just €21.2 billion to help fight their war against Putin.
The Belgian port of Zeebrugge “is the single largest import hub for Russian LNG in the EU, accounting for around a quarter of total volumes.” However, the Greenpeace report’s consensus for Europe overall was not rosy.
“Rather than phasing out Russian gas, Europe has effectively locked in LNG deliveries as a replacement for lost pipeline flows,” it reads. “Imports rose from 15.9 bcm in 2021 to a wartime high of 22.0 bcm in 2024 – an increase of 38%.”
For the first half of 2025, imports of Russian-origin LNG already stand at 12.8 bcm.
And yet, it is always Hungary and Slovakia that end up in the press as the primary buyers — many have maintained, the only buyers — of Russian oil and gas. Hungary also faces massive criticism for calling on Zelensky to stop bombing the Friendship pipeline, which carries the Russian crude oil it relies on.
In fact, the blame game against Hungary and Slovakia is so egregious, that it quickly becomes apparent that it is part of a broader propaganda war aimed at the two countries.
Brussels and numerous member state leaders especially point to the friendship between Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and Putin, claiming Hungary’s reliance on Russian oil—along with its continued sanction vetoes and refusal to supply weapons to Ukraine—is proof that Hungary is clearly allied with Moscow.
Meanwhile, most everyone is happily pumping in Russian-origin LNG and fattening the warchest of the man they say Europe must defeat — all while supposedly bemoaning thousands of dead Ukrainians.
Member states continue to publicly state they are weaning off Russian energy. A few countries — Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic — are reportedly at a level of zero, although reports of Russian oil and gas getting into the mix of multiple flows and new transit routes even make this somewhat doubtful. Furthermore, these three countries benefit from other European countries buying up Russian gas, which keeps the price of gas from other sources down.
Of note in the Greenpeace report is the success of the U.S. strategy to get Europe to buy more LNG from them, with 2025 set to double the previous LNG import record of 2023.
