MOSCOW - The Russian government will support privately controlled oil firm Surgut in its discussions with Hungarian oil and gas firm MOL MOLB.MM, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Friday.

Surgut bought a 21 percent stake in MOL from Austria's OMV for 1.4 billion euros in a surprise move earlier this year, earning the ire of MOL and Hungary's government.

The Kremlin-friendly company has said its intentions were friendly. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova, writing by Simon Shuster, editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov)

Energy Russia