In January, Budapest, which has maintained close ties with Moscow through the war, held up the renewal of the economic sanctions that include the immobilisation of Moscow's central bank assets. An agreement was reached after the European Commission agreed to include Hungary in talks about resuming gas transit to the EU through Ukraine.

The European Union announced its 16th package of sanctions against Russia on Feb. 24. Among the new targets of the sanctions is the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, which has already been under sanction by the United States for three years.

Hungary seeks to remove eight individuals from the EU's Russia sanctions list and demands new guarantees on Ukraine gas transit discussions before consenting to sanctions renewal. Despite the EU's need for unanimous agreement to extend sanctions,