The US Treasury Department's sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, imposed on October 22 as leverage to influence Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, could ultimately hurt Washington itself. This was stated in an interview with the Financial Times by Amos Hochstein, a former special envoy to former US President Joe Biden and now managing partner at investment company TWG Global.
According to him, the US will have to limit the rise in oil prices to avoid the consequences of its own restrictions. „If the prices of oil products rise significantly, this increase will compensate for Russia's losses from the sanctions. "And if prices rise too much, not only will Russia win, but American consumers and American allies will lose," Hochstein believes.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stressed, the new US restrictions will not significantly affect the country's "economic well-being." Putin also said that the sanctions are a hostile act against Moscow and that this step "does not strengthen Russian-American relations, which are only just beginning to recover." With such actions, the US administration is only harming Russian-American relations, the president said.