Putin’s Pipeline to Budapest: The Oil Trader Linking Russian Oligarchs to Orbán’s Inner Circle

With Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s poll numbers plunging and opposition forces gaining ground ahead of next year’s election, his regime appears to be doubling down on its most reliable ally: Vladimir Putin.

A new investigation by IStories has exposed the financial architecture behind this political alliance—tracing billions of dollars in Russian oil flows to a secretive company called Normeston Trading, which has enriched allies of both Putin and Orbán. As public discontent grows in Hungary, and Fidesz’s grip weakens, the ruling elite seems determined to secure Kremlin-backed business pipelines before its power slips away.

At the center of the story is Normeston Trading, a Cyprus-registered oil trader with a deliberately murky ownership structure. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Normeston’s shipments of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline into the EU quintupled. After the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they grew tenfold. Since 2011, more than 20 million tons of Russian oil—worth over $10 billion—have entered Europe via Normeston, much of it to Hungary.

The company operates in the shadows, but its beneficiaries are clear. On the Russian side, Normeston is tied to Gennady Timchenko, Putin’s longtime friend and former boss of oil giant Gunvor. Race car driver Lev Tolkachev, a former Lukoil man, is listed as a co-owner and sits on boards alongside Timchenko’s top managers. Another major shareholder is Valery Subbotin, a former Lukoil vice president who fled Russia for Monaco but remains deeply embedded in Kremlin-linked networks.

On the Hungarian side, Normeston’s partners are unmistakably political. Key stakes have passed through the hands of Orbán’s confidants, including Zsolt Hernádi, the CEO of MOL and Orbán’s close friend; István Garancsi, a powerful Fidesz-linked businessman; and György Nagy, a wealthy banker educated in Moscow and tied to Hungary’s most influential business families.

These deals have proven highly lucrative. Investigators estimate that Orbán’s circle earned hundreds of millions of dollars in profit by exploiting privileged access to Russian energy—often at the expense of Hungarian taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Hungary continues to block EU sanctions targeting Russian oil. In June, Budapest—along with Slovakia—derailed the latest EU sanctions package that would have targeted pipeline deliveries. Orbán’s position remains unchanged: Hungary, he insists, cannot afford to give up Russian energy, no matter what Moscow does in Ukraine.

The political context is critical. Orbán’s approval ratings have fallen sharply, and polling now suggests that Fidesz could lose its parliamentary majority in 2026 for the first time in over a decade. As his regime weakens, Orbán is accelerating his alignment with Russia—not just ideologically, but financially.

Normeston’s billions are more than backroom business—they’re an insurance policy. One that ties Hungary’s political future to Putin’s war machine, and leaves Europe with a Kremlin-aligned government at the heart of the EU.