Swedish minister says ready to work on Russian nuclear sanctions

BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST/MOSCOW, Mar 29 (PRIME) -- Sweden is ready to work on Ukraine’s proposals to expand the anti-Russian sanctions to include the nuclear power sphere and nuclear fuel during its temporary presidency in the E.U. Council, Swedish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy Ebba Busch said late on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the E.U. Council held a meeting on energy with participation of Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko.

Busch welcomed the Ukrainian impulse to move further, ensure that the existing sanctions are working, and continue cutting dependency on Russian gas, oil, and nuclear power as well as nuclear fuel. It will be a priority for the Swedish presidency in the E.U., she said, adding that she does not rule out slapping new sanctions on Russia in order to maintain pressure on Moscow.

But Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement that he had a phone conversation with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and assured him that Hungary would continue blocking sanctions against the nuclear power industry.

“We discussed construction of the new units of the Paks nuclear power plant and agreed that preparatory works are going on and that the government (of Hungary) will continue preventing any sanction intentions that hurt the nuclear sector because the new nuclear capacities are vital from the point of view of the Hungarian energy security,” he said.

The Russian government said that Novak and Szijjarto had discussed the two countries’ relations in the spheres of trade and supplies of energy, and that Russia was pumping additional amounts of natural gas to Hungary on request of Budapest.

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