The Wall Street Journal reported that the US and its allies have decided to delay imposing a ceiling on Russian oil prices until the November 8 US midterm elections.
According to the newspaper, the United States and its allies were preparing from December 5 to ban national companies from shipping and insuring Russian oil supplies if Moscow did not comply with reduced prices, and expected to complete the plan at least a month before the start of sanctions in order to prepare oil markets.
However, according to the newspaper, citing sources, the deadline did not work out, and at present, officials do not plan to introduce price restrictions ahead of the November 8 US midterm elections.
Efforts to set a price cap have slowed since OPEC+ announced production cuts on Oct. 5, according to the Wall Street Journal. As a result, the administration of US President Joe Biden was forced to develop a series of responses to this move.
According to the publication, the main goal of introducing a price ceiling is to keep the flow of Russian oil to world markets, while limiting the financial income that Russia receives.
Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that work should be done to set a price ceiling for Russian oil at $60 per barrel. According to the information provided by the minister, the West is trying “to limit the rise in energy and food prices as much as possible” in the conditions of instability in the world, while simultaneously limiting Russian budget revenues from fuel. exports to undermine Moscow’s ability to finance a special military operation in Ukraine.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia will not bear the costs of the welfare of others at its own expense, and will not export energy resources to countries that will limit their prices. Putin called the cap on fuel prices in Russia “fraud” and “shameless blackmail.” In addition, he warned, speaking at the Russian Energy Week forum, that the introduction of preferential oil prices risks setting a price ceiling in other sectors of the economy, and this destroys the global market economy and threatens the well-being of billions of people.
Source: TASS