US has been pressing its feet down, trying to choke the Russian oil trade with sanctions being imposed left , right and centre ever since their invasion of Ukraine. Eric Van Nostrand, who is performing the duties of U.S. Treasury assistant secretary for economic policy, said in New Delhi that “It is important to us to keep the oil supply on the market. But what we want to do is limit Putin’s profit from it,”
India has emerged as one of the top buyers of the Russian Seaborne oil since western nations imposed sanctions and halted purchases from Moscow. The sanctions are intended to limit the options available to Russia to three: sell its oil under the price cap, offer deeper discounts to buyers if they circumvent Western services, or shut its oil wells.
When asked about the sales to Western Nations of Refined products, Anna Morris, acting assistant secretary for terror financing at the U.S. Treasury said that would not breach the sanctions as once Russian oil is refined, from a technical perspective it is no longer Russian oil.
The price cap imposed by the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations, the European Union and Australia bans the use of Western maritime services such as insurance, flagging the transportation when tankers carry Russian oil priced at or above $60 a barrel.
