“The United States is taking drastic action against a key source of revenue from Russia’s brutal and illegal war in Ukraine,” said outgoing US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. According to White House deputy national security adviser for international economics Daleep Singh, these are the largest U.S. sanctions to date against the Russian energy sector.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, when asked about possible new US sanctions, that the Biden administration was trying to “leave as heavy a legacy as possible” to the new US President Donald Trump. Trump takes office on January 20th.
The sanctions from London also target the two large corporations Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, whose profits, according to the British Foreign Office, “fill Putin’s war chest and facilitate the war in Ukraine.” According to the information, the two companies alone produce more than a million barrels of oil per day, “which at current prices is worth around $23 billion (22.5 billion euros) per year.”
Gazprom Neft immediately rejected the announced sanctions as “unfounded and unlawful.” The decision was “contrary to the principles of free competition,” Russian state news agencies quoted a company representative as saying.
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj welcomed the announcements from Washington and London. These represent “a serious blow to the financial basis of the Russian war machine,” he explained in the online service X.
The sanctions also affect the Serbian oil and gas company NIS, which is majority owned by Gazprom. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he wanted to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin. NIS is Serbia’s sole gas supplier and majority owner of the two pipelines that supply Russian gas to Serbian households and industry in the country.
Since Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine began almost three years ago, the G7 countries have imposed a series of sanctions against the Russian economy – including the lucrative oil and gas sector.
according to/ck
