The U.S. has granted Hungary and Turkey permission to make gas payments through Gazprombank.

The Turkish Minister of Energy, Alparslan Bayraktar, informed Bloomberg that after discussions with U.S. officials, the country has been granted the opportunity to continue paying for gas through a sanctioned bank.

Budapest will also be able to make payments for Russian gas via Gazprombank, reported on the evening of December 19, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

Hungary, which primarily relies on Russian oil and gas, had previously approached the U.S. for an exemption from complying with Washington's sanctions against Gazprombank. On the evening of December 19, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated that U.S. authorities made an exception for his country, allowing Budapest to process payments for Russian gas through Gazprombank.

On November 21, the U.S. Treasury imposed blocking sanctions on Gazprombank, effectively making it nearly impossible to process payments for Russian gas supplies to foreign buyers. Under the new restrictive measures, transactions involving the bank were permitted until December 20. An exception for U.S. operations was made for the "Sakhalin-2" project – until June 28, 2025.

In justifying the sanctions, Washington emphasized that Russia uses Gazprombank to procure military equipment to continue its war against Ukraine and to disburse payments to Russian military personnel.

The European Union urged the U.S. to ease sanctions against Gazprombank due to the threat to the energy security of several EU countries.

The day before, the U.S. Treasury temporarily allowed transactions with Gazprombank related to civil nuclear projects initiated before November 21, 2024. However, this permission does not extend to the Paks II nuclear power plant project in Hungary.