Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday asked the G7 to strengthen sanctions against Russia “by limiting the price of oil” exported by Moscow.
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“For us, a consistent position of the G7 countries on sanctions is important. They must be further strengthened, by limiting the prices of oil exported by the aggressor, ”he wrote on his Telegram account to report on his videoconference speech before the G7 summit being held in Germany.
The G7 countries are considering a “mechanism to globally cap the price of Russian oil,” a senior White House official said on Monday.
Such a mechanism, which therefore remains to be defined, would go through the “services” surrounding the export of Russian oil, said this source, who did not wish to be identified.
It is a question of drying up the main source of fresh money for Russia.
The United States and Canada, less dependent on Russian oil than Europe, have banned its import. The European Union, meanwhile, has introduced a gradual embargo as part of its 6th sanctions package adopted in early June.
The cessation of imports by ship of crude oil will take place within six months and that of petroleum products within eight months. Supply via the Druzhba pipeline can, however, continue “temporarily”, but without a deadline. In particular, it supplies three countries without access to the sea, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The progressive embargo will affect two thirds of European purchases. Germany and Poland having decided on their own to stop deliveries via Druzhba by the end of the year, Russian imports will be affected by more than 90%, according to the Europeans.
In 2021, the European import bill for Russian oil represented 80 billion euros, four times more than gas purchases from Russia.
Russian oil imports provide 30% of Europe’s needs.