A day after Péter Szijjártó claimed that he had a good-natured telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Hungarian energy supplies, and tried to convince him, among other things, by promising US energy investments that Hungary could not give up Russian energy, the US Secretary of Energy sent a message to Hungary that Washington expects Hungary to give up Russian fossil energy.

Chris Wright spoke about this in Brussels on Friday, after discussing increasing imports of US LNG and how to cut off Russian sources of war funding. As the US energy secretary said, it would be preferable for Europe to get its energy needs from its “friends”, that is, to stop supporting Moscow and buy from America instead.

Asked by Politico whether countries like Hungary and Slovakia, which continue to oppose the European Commission's plans to cut off Russian gas, should stop doing business with the Kremlin, Wright replied:"Absolutely."

“We want to replace all Russian gas. President Trump, America and all EU member states agree that we want to end the Russia-Ukraine war. The more we can strangle Russia’s ability to finance this murderous war, the better for all of us. So the answer to your question is: absolutely.”

Wright said.

However, it is not only about fossil fuels, but also - potentially - Paks 2. The American minister also called on European countries to look for alternatives to Russian nuclear energy.

“We want nuclear technology to come from the United States or the EU itself”

– he said. The European Court of Justice's decision on Thursday is also related to the latter issue: according to the recent decision, the Commission unlawfully allowed Hungary in 2017 to finance the expansion of the Paks II nuclear power plant with Rosatom through state aid.