Moscow has included Hungary in the list of unfriendly countries due to joining the anti-Russian sanctions, but the channels for dialogue remain open. This was stated by Russian Ambassador to Hungary Yevgeny Stanislavov in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“Budapest demonstrates a pragmatic position, which is not going to give up even under pressure from its allies in the EU and NATO,” — said Stanislavov.

He drew attention to the fact that Hungary’s policy is based on the desire to protect its interests, while the country is experiencing the negative consequences of the Ukrainian crisis and the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the EU and the US.

“To some extent, Budapest succeeds in this, but the fact remains: Hungary has signed all the anti-Russian sanctions packages of Brussels and is forced to strictly comply with them. That is why it is classified as a country unfriendly to Russia, against which our retaliatory measures can be applied,” the ambassador pointed out.

According to him, the sanctions are having an increasingly negative impact on all areas of cooperation between Russia and Hungary, including the economy, politics, culture, and human contacts.

“Recently, the normal life of the Russian embassy has begun to suffer more and more from this. But we remain optimistic and even against this background we continue to strive for constructive interaction with Hungary and keep the channels of dialogue open in order to preserve the baggage of positive developments accumulated over the past years,” – the head of the diplomatic mission emphasized.

As reported  EADailyAccording to Bloomberg sources, Hungary is one of nine countries included in the EU project to monitor compliance with sanctions against Russia. Denmark, Spain, Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic will also take part in this initiative. As part of the project, in cooperation with the European Commission and national governments, a new EU body will be established to coordinate the supervision of sanctions compliance. According to preliminary information, it will be launched in June for a two-year period.

In early March, the EU Special Envoy for Sanctions  David O’Sullivan told Politico that the European Union will shift the focus of sanctions pressure on Russia from the adoption of new sanctions to monitoring compliance with those already imposed. He also added that he is currently actively developing mechanisms to prevent circumvention of sanctions.