From the Liveblog of
Friday, January 10, 2025
Biden hits Russian oil in toughest sanctions yet in bid to give Ukraine, Trump leverage
The Biden administration has imposed its broadest package of sanctions yet targeting Russia’s oil and gas revenues in an attempt to give Kyiv and the incoming administration of Donald Trump leverage to reach a deal for peace in Ukraine.
The move is meant to cut Russia’s oil revenues for the war that started in February 2022, and has killed or wounded tens of thousands and reduced cities to rubble.
The measures are “the most significant sanctions yet against the Russian energy sector, the largest source of revenue for the Kremlin’s war machine,” a senior Biden official tells reporters in a call.
The US Treasury slapped sanctions on Russian companies Gazprom Neft SIBN.MM and Surgutneftegas that explore, produce and sell oil and 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, many of which are in the so-called shadow fleet of aging tankers operated by non-Western companies. They also include networks that trade the petroleum.
Many of those tankers have been used to ship oil to India and China as the price cap imposed by the Group of Seven countries in 2022 has shifted much of Russian oil trade from Europe to Asia. Some of the tankers have shipped both Russian and Iranian oil.
The logic of the sanctions “is to hit every stage of the Russian oil production and distribution chain,” the official said. They should cost Russia billions of dollars per month, if sufficiently enforced, the official said.
The sanctions target oil producers, tankers, intermediaries, traders, and ports.
The Biden administration believes that November’s sanctions helped push Russia’s ruble to its weakest level since the beginning of the invasion and pushed the Russian central bank to raise its policy rate to a record level of over 20%.
