Russia said on Thursday that the United States was unlikely to agree to a Ukrainian proposal to lower the price cap on Russian oil to $30 a barrel but said Washington had for decades tried to use oil as a weapon against its global rivals.
After Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the West sought to sink the Russian economy by imposing a myriad of sanctions and in 2022 imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian oil.
President Vladimir Putin says Russia’s wartime economy – which grew 3.6% last year – has thrived despite the sanctions, and that Russia, the world’s second largest oil exporter, has plenty of buyers for its oil.
“The other day I read that Ukraine was trying to convince the United States to lower the cap price on Russian oil to $30 a barrel,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview. “This goes beyond all bounds.”
“It is significant that the United States is unlikely to go along with Ukraine,” Lavrov said. He argued that such a lowering of the cap would have a serious impact on both the global oil market and on the U.S. economy.
Lavrov also said that China and India will be able to absorb oil supply from the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers, where Russia plays an important role.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)