Russia spurns Western price cap on oil
Russia will not recognize the price cap of USD 60 per barrel of Russian oil, on which EU and G7 nations as well as Australia have come to an agreement.
So remarks Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
”We will not accept this price cap,” says Peskov, according to Russian news agency RIA.
He adds that Russia is now analyzing the new situation and will subsequently issue a response.
Kremlin has, on numerous occasions, said that it will not supply oil to nations which impose a price ceiling.
This warning was reiterated again Saturday by Russia’s envoy to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.
”Starting this year, Europe will live without Russian oil,” he writes on social media.
Russia is the world’s second-largest exporter of crude oil, writes French news agency AFP.
A strike on Russian economy
The decision to impose a price cap means that the EU and G7 nations and Australia will only pay a maximum of USD 60 per barrel of Russian crude.
On Friday, the price stood at USD 67.
The Western nations’ price cap serves to put pressure on Russia’s economy. To a large extent, the nation’s war in Ukraine is financed through revenue from oil sales.
”With Russia’s economy already contracting and its budget increasingly stretched thin, the price cap will immediately cut into Putin’s most important source of revenue,” says Secretary of the US Treasury Janet Yellen.
She adds that the maximum will also benefit low- and medium-income countries, already under pressure from high prices of energy and food.
The G7 consists of the largest industrial nations in the world: The US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada.
EU, G7, Australia approve price cap of USD 60 on Russian oil exports
