“Russia is a huge country, located a thousand kilometers away, with a historically defined role, a rich culture that differs in many ways from ours ... The Russian economy is one of the strongest in the world.
We Hungarians respect the Russian people.
Russia was, is and will be.
The same applies to Hungary.
There were, are and will be relations between the two countries, as between Europe and Russia or Ukraine and Russia,” she said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Meanwhile, Novak added that Russian-Hungarian relations should not be idealized.
According to her, Russia currently provides Hungary with "55% of oil and 80% of gas."
“We are working to substantially reduce this dependency as soon as possible,” she said.
Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Hungary's losses due to EU sanctions against Russia will amount to about €10 billion by the end of 2022.