Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized new U.S. sanctions targeting its energy sector on Saturday, stating it would continue its major oil and gas projects.
The ministry called them an attempt to damage Russia’s economy while risking global market stability and vowed Russia would respond to the U.S.’s “hostile” actions, which were announced on Friday, according to Reuters.
The statement said the measures amounted to “an attempt to inflict at least some damage to the Russian economy, even at the cost of the risk of destabilising world markets as the end approaches of President Joe Biden’s inglorious tenure in power.”
“Despite the convulsions in the White House and the machinations of the Russophobic lobby in the West, trying to drag the world energy sector into the ‘hybrid war’ unleashed by the United States against Russia, our country has been and remains a key and reliable player in the global fuel market.”
The sanctions marked the most extensive U.S. effort to target Russia’s oil and gas revenues, aiming to provide Kyiv and the incoming Trump administration leverage for a resolution to the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, key players in oil exploration, production, and sales, along with 183 vessels linked to Russian oil shipments, many of them part of the shadow fleet of older tankers operated by non-Western companies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that the new measures are poised to deliver a significant blow to Moscow.
“The less revenue Russia earns from oil … the sooner peace will be restored,” he said.
