President Donald Trump of the United States has tried to downplay Russia’s reaction to the strict US energy restrictions that were announced on Wednesday. He said that the full effects of these sanctions won’t be known for a few months.
When a reporter at the White House asked Trump on Thursday about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dismissal of the sanctions, saying they wouldn’t hurt Russia’s economy too much, Trump gave a short answer. “I’m glad he feels that way.” In six months, I’ll tell you about it. The President of the United States said, “Let’s see how it all works out.”
Big Sanctions Hit Russian Oil Companies
The penalties, which affect two of Russia’s biggest oil corporations, Rosneft and Lukoil, are the first Ukraine-related restrictions Trump has put on Russia since he took office for a second time. The measure is meant to put more pressure on Russia to stop the war in Ukraine. Reuters, a news agency, said that oil prices around the world went up by 5% right after Trump made his declaration.
President Putin labelled the sanctions “an attempt to put pressure on Russia,” but he stood firm and said, “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decide anything under pressure.”
Putin Meeting Cancelled and What It Means for India
The sanctions came after Trump and Putin’s meeting was called off. Originally, the two leaders were supposed to meet in Budapest to talk about how to terminate the conflict. The negotiations were later cancelled by the United States, though. “We called off the meeting with President Putin because it didn’t feel right to me.” It didn’t seem like we were going to make it to the destination we needed to go. Trump said at the White House, “So I cancelled it, but we’ll do it in the future.”
The new restrictions are likely to have effects all throughout the world, especially for countries that buy a lot of Russian oil, like India. The US actions will mostly shut off Rosneft and Lukoil from the global financial exchange system, which is based on the US dollar. Because most payments for oil shipments are paid in US dollars, this could make Indian and Chinese refiners cut back on their oil purchases from Russia by a lot. Several Indian refiners are said to be looking at their present contracts for Russian oil and waiting for the government to tell them what to do next.