Russia "will not accept" the cap on the price of Russian oil and is considering how to respond, the Kremlin said today, responding to a deal by Western powers aimed at curbing a critical source of funding for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had made preparations for yesterday's announcement of the cap by the Group of Seven (G7), the European Union (EU) and Australia, state news agency TASS reported.
"We will not accept this cap," he said, according to the RIA news agency. He added that Russia would quickly conduct an analysis of the agreement and then respond, RIA reported.
Russia has repeatedly said it will not provide oil to countries that adopt the cap, a position reaffirmed today by Mikhail Ulyanov, Moscow's ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, in posts on social networking sites.
"Starting this year, Europe will live without Russian oil," he said."
The G7 cap would allow non-EU countries to continue to import Russian crude transported by sea, but would prohibit transport, insurance and reinsurance companies from handling shipments of Russian crude around the world unless it is sold below $60. This could complicate the transportation of Russian crude priced above the cap, even to countries that are not parties to the agreement.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the cap would be particularly beneficial to low- and middle-income countries that have been hit hardest by high energy and food prices.
[BR][BR]"With Russia's economy already shrinking and its budget increasingly squeezed, the cap will immediately reduce (President Vladimir) Putin's most important source of income," Yellen said in a statement.
In a post on the Telegram app, Russia's embassy in the US criticised the West's "dangerous" move and argued that Moscow would continue to find buyers for its oil.
"Such steps will inevitably have the effect of increasing uncertainty and imposing higher costs on consumers of raw materials," it said.
"Regardless of the current flirtation with the dangerous and illegal tool (i.e. the cap), we are convinced that Russian oil will continue to be in demand."
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