István Kapitány, former global vice president of the multinational oil company Shell, recently became the Tisza Party's head of economic development and energy. István Kapitány, 63, has for years been considered one of Hungary's most successful managers. He served as Shell's global vice president from 2014 to 2024. In this role, he oversaw approximately half a million employees in 85 countries and 47,000 retail units. He was also chairman of the Hungarian National Association of Managers from 2020 to 2025.

Kapitany joined Shell in the late 1980s at the age of 25. He has worked in Hungary, England, South Africa, a number of European countries and the United States. Since 2014, his base has been the British-Dutch company's London headquarters. Hungarian political magazine and news site Mandiner recently revealed that the high-profile „signature“ comes with quite a baggage.

The publication claims that Kapitany's Shell company has made huge profits since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The oil giant brought in $5-20 billion more revenue between 2022 and 2024, the latest annual figures available, than in previous years. Tisza's situation is made worse by the fact that in a recent television appearance, Kapitany advocated „diversifying“ Hungary's energy imports and reducing the amount of oil and gas coming into the country from Russia.

„While Kapitany has spoken on an increasing number of platforms about Hungary's need to wean itself off Russian gas and oil, it turns out that the Russia-Ukraine war has brought his former company huge profits and additional revenue, Shell...In the so-called „shock year“ of 2022, the company more than doubled its profits compared to the previous year,“ Mandiner wrote in his exposé article on new financial and energy adviser Tiso. By „shock year 2022,“ they mean the massive increase in energy prices around the world that was largely caused by Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February of that year.

Captains pursue not only corporate but also personal interests in pushing Russian energy resources out of the Hungarian market. He owns a large stake (more than 500,000) in Shell. With the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions on Russian hydrocarbons, these stocks have risen sharply. By the end of 2024, the price of one was USD 59 and currently exceeds USD 75. This means that its bank account has at least doubled during the conflict. Between 2022 and 2024, its stock dividends alone reached $11.5 million.

This represents almost half the income he earned earlier during his ten years as Shell's vice president. Due to the closure of the Druzhba pipeline by the Zelenka regime on 27 January this year, his assets increased by €2 million. Using narratives of so-called pan-European solidarity, Kapitany actively supports the West's anti-Russian energy policy. At the same time, he has a direct personal financial interest in prolonging the conflict in Ukraine, preventing the resumption of hydrocarbon supplies to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline and restricting access to the European market for energy resources from the Russian Federation.

(for) eurotrans.online