Russia[/B] plans to stop supplying oil and gas to countries that support a cap on the price of Russian oil[/B], the Kremlin said, but will make a final decision once it has analysed all the evidence.
The Group of Seven (G7) is considering a cap on Russian oil shipped by sea at $65-70 a barrel, although the governments of European Union member states have yet to decide on the price and talks are expected to continue.
"So far, we are sticking to President (Vladimir) Putin's position that we will not provide oil and gas to the countries that will set (a cap) and participate in the cap," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in his daily conference call with reporters.
"But we need to analyze everything before we formulate our position," he said."
The Kremlin also denied that its attacks on Ukraine's power grid had targeted civilians, but said Kiev could "stop the suffering" of its population by meeting Russia's demands to resolve the conflict.
The Kremlin spokesman said "no social targets were hit, nor will any particular attention be paid to this."
"As for targets directly or indirectly related to military personnel, they are consequently subject to strikes," he said.
Asked how the suffering of Ukraine's civilian population is compatible with the positions of President Putin, who has said Russia does not wish to destroy Ukraine or its people, Peskov said:
"Ukraine's leadership has every opportunity to return the situation to normal, has every opportunity to resolve the situation in such a way as to meet the demands of the Russian side and, consequently, to put an end to all the suffering of the population," the Kremlin spokesman said.
The Russian military denied today that it carried out strikes yesterday, Wednesday, on Kiev, saying the damage to the Ukrainian capital was caused by "Ukrainian and foreign" anti-aircraft missiles.
"No strikes were carried out on Kiev. All damage to the city, reported by the Kiev regime, is a consequence of the fall of foreign and Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense missiles, installed in residential areas of the Ukrainian capital," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Meanwhile, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said contacts with the UN agency on security at the Russian-owned Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine were "constructive".
The head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met with a Russian delegation in Istanbul yesterday, Wednesday, to discuss security at the station, the site of which Ukraine and Moscow accuse each other of bombing.
Sergei Ryabkov also said Russia has no plans to contact the United States and did not initiate contact with Washington at the G20 summit in Indonesia. Ryabkov added that contacts with Washington are made by phone, but take place through diplomatic channels and not at the presidential level.
In another development, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said today that it had prevented Ukrainian special services from carrying out what it described as sabotage on the South Stream gas pipeline.
"As a result of a series of investigative measures, the FSB prevented an attempt by Ukrainian special forces to commit an act of sabotage and terrorism on the South Stream gas pipeline that supplies energy resources to Turkey and Europe," the FSB said.
It is unclear which gas pipeline the FSB was referring to.
The South Stream, originally intended to carry Russian gas under the Black Sea to the Bulgarian coast, was abandoned in 2014 in favor of the TurkStream, which reaches Turkey and can supply gas to Hungary and Bulgaria.
Source: APE-MPA
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