In a move that shows the running out of patience of the administration of US President Donald Trump towards his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the US Treasury Department last night imposed sanctions on the two largest Russian oil refiners, "Rosneft" and "Lukoil", the "Washington Post" newspaper reported, BTA reported.
The ministry pointed to "Putin's lack of serious commitment to the peace process to end the war in Ukraine" in a statement announcing the measures, adopted after the midnight Russian attacks on Ukraine and the cancellation of next week's planned meeting between Trump and Putin in Hungary.
Last night's sanctions cut off Russian companies from the US banking system and financial institutions, essentially prohibiting them from dealing in US dollars.
"This is a very significant action because it is the first sanctions imposed by the Trump administration and it hits Russia where it is most vulnerable - in oil revenues," Michael Carpenter, who was President Joe Biden's top adviser on Europe and Russia and is now a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the publication.
"Newsweek" specifies that the measures included in Trump's decree prohibit American citizens from doing business with the two sanctioned companies and their subsidiaries and warn foreign financial institutions that supporting Russia's military-industrial base could lead to secondary sanctions.
The publication also quoted US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, who said that the measures are aimed at reducing the revenues fueling the Kremlin's aggression and called on Russia to "immediately agree to a ceasefire."
Under the headline "Trump slaps Russia's largest oil refiners with sanctions over war in Ukraine," the British newspaper "The Independent" quoted Besant, who last night during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington said that "it is time to stop the killing and immediately cease fire." and insisted on taking "further action if necessary to support President Trump's efforts to end another war", calling on US allies to join in imposing new sanctions.
After the measures were introduced, crude oil prices rose by more than 4 percent on expectations that the move could reduce Russian supplies on the world market, the "Financial Times" noted.
"This will further complicate oil exports by Russian companies - something we have already started to see after the British sanctions," Amrita Sen of the British energy market analysis company "Energy Aspects" told the publication.
She added that the sanctions could pressure China and India to reduce the amount of Russian oil they buy, which is Trump's goal.
V. "USA Today" recalls that the American president has already imposed an additional 25% tariff on goods from India, in response to the purchase of large quantities of Russian oil. However, the publication notes that this is the first time that Trump has directly imposed sanctions on the part of the United States.
The British newspaper "The Guardian" recalls that during his election campaign last year, the American president promised to stop the war in Ukraine "in 24 hours" if elected. But after returning to the White House, he found that the task was much more difficult than he imagined.
His impatience is already evident after he said: "Every time I talk to Vladimir, I have good conversations and then they don't go anywhere".
Will the sanctions work? Taxes on the energy sector account for about a quarter of Russia's budget, and the additional sanctions will help further restrict Rosneft and Lukoil from doing business, putting further pressure on Putin, writes the Guardian.
Marshall Billingsley - a Treasury official during Trump's first term - said that the threat of sanctions against banks that do business with both companies was among the most important measures announced, as it would make it more difficult for companies importing Russian crude to do business.
"Even if Indian, Chinese and Turkish refiners want to keep buying, their banks may say 'no'," he explained.
The Guardian also quoted Thomas Graham, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations - as saying who was more cautious last night, telling "Bloomberg" that "if the White House thinks this will lead to a radical change in the Kremlin's behavior or Putin's policies, they are mistaken".