Moscow sees no reason to exclude Hungary, Slovakia from list of unfriendly nations

Moscow sees no reason to exclude Hungary and Slovakia from the list of unfriendly countries, the Russian Foreign Ministry told the Izvestia daily, Report informs via TASS.

"Despite these countries’ determination to preserve a number of useful practices in strategically important sectors of their trade and economic relations with Russia and their orientation towards maintaining a bilateral political dialogue, Budapest and Bratislava are forced to obey block discipline, including anti-Russian restrictions, due to their membership in the European Union and NATO," the ministry said.

"Therefore, there have been no sufficient grounds to review their current status," the ministry added.

The Russian government approved the list of unfriendly countries in March 2022. Transactions with states included in this list it must be executed in a special manner. Currently, this list includes 46 countries and territories: all EU member states, as well as Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Albania, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the United Kingdom, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, North Macedonia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Micronesia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan (considered a territory of China, but since 1949 governed by its own administration).