The United States stepped up its economic pressure on Moscow on Wednesday (local time) by putting sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil corporations, Rosneft and Lukoil OAO. This was the first set of sanctions expressly aimed at Russia because of the war in Ukraine during President Donald Trump’s second term. It was a clear hint that the administration was getting more and more frustrated with “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process.”
President Trump, who is determined to end the war in Ukraine, announced the penalties. He shared a statement on Truth Social from the US Department of the Treasury that said, “Treasury sanctions major Russian oil companies, calls on Moscow to immediately agree to ceasefire.”
Important Sanctions and Treasury Statement
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) put the sanctions on the two big energy companies that together make up a large part of Russia’s oil exports.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “Since President Putin won’t stop this pointless war, Treasury is punishing Russia’s two biggest oil companies that pay for the Kremlin’s war machine.” If necessary, the Treasury is ready to do more to help President Trump end yet another war. We ask our partners to join us in these sanctions and follow them.
The sanctions worked well:
Block all of Rosneft and Lukoil’s property and interests in property that are in the US or owned or controlled by US people.
Don’t let anybody in the US do business with them.
Stop any businesses that are 50% or more controlled by Rosneft and Lukoil, even if they aren’t mentioned.
The goal of the measure is to shut off Russian companies from American banks and other financial institutions. This will make it much harder for the Kremlin to raise money for its war activities. Last week, the UK also put sanctions on both companies.
Earlier on Wednesday, the European Union passed its 19th round of sanctions on Moscow. These included a ban on Russian natural gas imports, which showed that the EU was working together to put pressure on Russia.
Trump Says Again That India Buys Oil
President Trump has made repeated and controversial statements that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised him that India will “not buy much oil” from Russia. This is when the US announced its sanctions.
Trump said during Diwali celebrations at the White House on Tuesday, “I talked to Prime Minister Modi…”and we get along extremely well. He won’t buy a lot of oil from Russia. He wants the war to end as much as I do.
Trump also connected India’s purchases of Russian oil to the current trade war: “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just keep paying huge tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.” The US is currently charging India 50 percent in tariffs, and a big part of that is because India bought cheap Russian oil.
But Indian authorities have not backed up Trump’s assertion that he was going to cut back on oil purchases. When asked about Trump’s similar comments last week, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said he was “not aware” of any such conversation between the two leaders. New Delhi has always said that its energy policy is based on the needs of the country and making sure that its customers have dependable supplies.
Meeting with Putin Cancelled
The White House acknowledged that a possible meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was supposed to happen in Budapest, was no longer on the table for the time being. This is another symptom of the growing discontent.
Trump told the reporters alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, “We cancelled the meeting with President Putin.” It just didn’t feel right to me. Even though the US put strong penalties on Russia and cancelled a meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would still be willing to engage with Russia.