WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration imposed its broadest package of sanctions so far targeting Russia’s oil and gas revenues on Friday, in an effort to give Kyiv and Donald Trump’s incoming team leverage to reach a deal for peace in Ukraine.

The move is meant to cut Russia’s revenues for continuing the war that has killed or wounded tens of thousands and reduced cities to rubble since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a post on X that the measures announced on Friday will “deliver a significant blow” to Moscow. “The less revenue Russia earns from oil … the sooner peace will be restored,” Zelenskiy added. Daleep Singh, a top White House economic and national security adviser, said in a statement that the measures were the “most significant sanctions yet on Russia’s energy sector, by far the largest source of revenue for (President Vladimir) Putin’s war”.

The U.S. Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM), opens new tab and Surgutneftegas, which explore for, produce and sell oil as well as 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. The sanctions also include networks that trade the petroleum. Many of those tankers have been used to ship oil to India and China as a price cap imposed by the Group of Seven countries in 2022 has shifted much of the trade in Russian oil from Europe to Asia. Some tankers have shipped both Russian and Iranian oil. The Treasury also rescinded a provision that had exempted the intermediation of energy payments from sanctions on Russian banks. 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, another U.S. official told reporters in a call. The sanctions target oil producers, tankers, intermediaries, traders, and ports. “There is not a step in the production and distribution chain that’s untouched and that gives us greater confidence that evasion is going to be even more costly for Russia,” the official said. (Reuters)

Photo: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a reception for newly elected Democratic members of Congress, in Washington, U.S. (Reuters)