United States Enforces Restrictions on Russian Oil Due to Putin’s Refusal to End Conflict in Ukraine
Donald Trump has imposed restrictions on Russia’s two largest petroleum firms following the conclusion that the Russian leader had not been “honest and forthright” in negotiations over Ukraine, the US treasury chief stated.
These restrictions against Rosneft and Lukoil followed just one day after a planned Trump-Putin summit in the Hungarian capital was shelved, with Washington voicing its frustration at the absence of advances in ceasefire negotiations with Russia.
“Due to Putin’s unwillingness to end this senseless war, the Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on the two biggest Russian petroleum firms that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, announced this week.
He cautioned that the Treasury Department was ready “to implement additional measures should it be needed” to support Trump’s efforts to end the war.
Speaking to a business news network before the official announcement, Bessent remarked the move was “one of the largest sanctions that we have imposed against the Russian Federation”.
The President has held off on new sanctions for several months, saying he aimed to convince Putin to make peace despite growing frustration with him. But the president’s patience apparently ran out in the week since he spoke to the Russian leader by telephone the previous week.
The European Union also announced additional restrictions on the Russian government on the same day. These involve a ban on importing LNG from Russia by the year 2027, the blacklisting of oil tankers used by Moscow and travel curbs on Russia’s diplomatic personnel.
