Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has warned ahead of an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers that a proposed European price cap on Russian natural gas will result in an immediate cutoff in supplies to Europe by Moscow.
Szijjarto said on Facebook on September 9 that "the plan that would impose a price cap exclusively on Russian gas coming via pipelines is entirely against European and Hungarian interests."
"This morning...we will do our utmost to make Brussels finally understand that gas supplies are not an ideological or political issue, but one of hard-core physical reality," Szijjarto said.
EU energy ministers are expected to meet later on September 9 to discuss ways to contain a surge in energy prices brought on by Russia halting most gas flows to Europe.
The stoppages are widely seen as a response to European sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Moscow has been accused of using the threat of withholding energy exports to put pressure on the West.
SEE ALSO: Ahead Of Crunch Meeting Of EU Energy Ministers, Five Questions Answered About Russia And The Coming WinterCzech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said earlier this week that a cap on the price of Russian imports to the bloc was not a viable solution for the current crisis and that energy ministers should not discuss the proposal at the September 9 emergency meeting.
Szijjarto met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow in July as Hungary sought additional gas supplies from Moscow to add to an existing long-term supply deal.
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Hungary, which has criticized EU sanctions against Russia, receives more than 80 percent of its gas from Russia and is a transit country for a major oil pipeline that delivers supplies to the bloc.
The European Union has already agreed to ban more than two-thirds of Russian oil imports.
Gazprom started to ramp up gas supplies to Hungary in August.
On September 8, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff signaled the government's intention to curb most institutional and commercial gas consumption by one-quarter "as fast as possible."
Gergely Gulyas announced the 25 percent target -- with exceptions for hospitals and social institutions -- along with a call for Hungarian consumers to use electricity and gas sparingly.
National populist Orban and his politically dominant Fidesz party have resisted EU moves to ban Russian gas and oil and have put up numerous roadblocks to several rounds of talks on punitive sanctions against Moscow.
In charge for most of the past two decades, Orban has increasingly cozied up to Russian President Putin for several years as rule-of-law, media-freedom, human-rights, and other politically charged disputes with the European Union have mounted.
Putin has rejected Western accusations that Moscow is using its energy exports as a "weapon" while boasting that it can easily sell oil and gas around the world and blaming Europeans for current interruptions in gas supplies to the continent.
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 7, Putin said the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany was "practically shut down" and will remain so because its last operational turbine is out of order.