A possible ban on the purchase of Russian oil could lead to serious consequences in the global energy markets, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
“A topic that we carefully monitor. Undoubtedly, this is a situation that can significantly distort the world energy markets, and this cannot but have rather serious consequences. We are closely monitoring the development of the situation,” Peskov said.
On March 2, US President Joe Biden answered a question about Washington’s possible ban on Russian oil and gas with the phrase “nothing is ruled out,” Reuters reported. At the same time, the White House reported that when considering the inclusion of the Russian energy sector in the list of measures against Moscow, they are looking for a balance between the problems of the global oil market and the needs of the Americans.
Western countries began to impose restrictive measures against Russia after it recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) on February 21, and on February 24 launched a military operation in the Donbass and in Ukraine as a whole. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the purpose of this is to protect the population of the DPR and LPR from the “Kiev regime”, as well as the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.
To date, various kinds of restrictions against Russia have been introduced by the US, EU, UK, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea and Montenegro. The sanctions affected the economic, financial and trade sectors to varying degrees, including banks and technology exports. Also, the US, EU, Switzerland and others have imposed a ban on transactions with Russian government agencies and the Central Bank. Ukraine and Micronesia severed diplomatic relations with Russia.