The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is preparing to introduce additional limitations on Russia’s oil, gas, and financial industries.
According to CBS, citing four individuals aware of the strategy, Trump intends to curb Russian utilization of U.S. payment networks.
On Thursday, March 13, the Treasury Department allowed a 60-day exception, established by the Joe Biden administration in January, to expire.
This exception had permitted certain energy-related dealings with sanctioned Russian banks to persist.
With the waiver’s expiration, those banks might lose the ability to use U.S. payment systems for significant energy transactions.
The Russian financial entities previously excluded from sanctions included Vnesheconombank, Bank Financial Corporation Otkritie, Sovcombank, Sberbank, VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, Rosbank, Bank Zenit, Bank Saint-Petersburg, and the Central Bank of Russia.
The move to further limit access to American financial networks will complicate the ability of other nations to purchase Russian oil, thereby reducing its availability worldwide.
This could result in a price increase of as much as $5 per barrel, a significant rise following lower costs in recent weeks.
These new measures also coincide with efforts by the Trump administration to persuade Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to agree to the conditions of a suggested 30-day ceasefire to conclude the conflict in Ukraine.
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