BUDAPEST: Hungarian government commissioner stated that the Russia is poised to make a $10.8 billion loan to Hungary, one of the European Union members most sympathetic to it. Budapest plans to draw on the first tranche of the loan this year.
Officially the loan is to finance the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant, Hungary’s only atomic power station, which supplies about 40 percent of the country’s electricity. But critics say there is another motive as well: Russia buying favor with a European Union (EU) government.”This Paks deal is camouflage,” said Zoltan Illes, a former lawmaker in the ruling Fidesz party who was a state secretary for the environment until 2014. “This is a financial transaction, and for the Russians this is buying influence.”
