Hungary withdraws from Kremlin's International Investment Bank after US pressure
The Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia have already completed their withdrawals from the IIB, and Romania will leave the organization in June
The Hungarian government has decided to withdraw its representatives from the Russian-controlled International Investment Bank (IIB), the business portal vg.hu reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the situation.
Source. This was reported by Reuters.
According to the portal, the Hungarian government has concluded that participation in the organization is no longer appropriate.
The publication did not name specific names, but it is known that the Minister of Economic Development of Hungary, Marton Nagy, is a member of the IIB's board of governors.
Budapest confirmed the information of vg.hu and expressed dissatisfaction with the pressure from the United States, which the day before imposed sanctions against three officials of the IIB in Budapest, including two Russians and one Hungarian citizen.
"We accept and understand that we have different positions, but we don't understand why there is a need to put pressure on other states to change their positions," Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at a press conference on Thursday.
Washington noted that Hungary has ignored U.S. concerns about the "opaque Kremlin platform," an international bank whose headquarters was moved from Moscow to Budapest in 2019.
The Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia have already completed their withdrawals from the IIB, and Romania intends to leave the organization in June. As of the end of January, Hungary held a 25.27% stake in the IIB, the second largest after Russia, which had 45.44%.
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