President Biden's administration announced Friday that it's expanding sanctions against Russia's critically important energy sector, unveiling a new effort to inflict pain on Moscow for its grinding war in Ukraine as President-elect Trump returns to office vowing to quickly end the conflict. (Trump is planning to meet with Vladimir Putin.) The Biden administration billed the new sanctions as the most significant to date against Moscow's oil and liquefied natural gas sectors, the driver of Russia's economy. Officials said the sanctions, which punish entities that do business with the Russians, have the potential to cost the Russian economy upward of billions of dollars per month, the AP reports.
More than 180 oil-carrying vessels that are suspected to be part of a shadow fleet utilized by the Kremlin to evade oil sanctions as well as traders, oil field service firms, and Russian energy officials are also targeted by the new sanctions. Several of the vessels targeted are suspected of shipping sanctioned Iranian oil, according to the Treasury Department. "The United States is taking sweeping action against Russia's key source of revenue for funding its brutal and illegal war against Ukraine," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
In a move coordinated with Washington, the UK also slapped sanctions on Russian energy firms. The US and Britain are both targeting two of Russia's major oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, and dozens of subsidiaries. The Foreign Office said that between them the two companies produce more than 1 million barrels of oil a day, worth $23 billion a year, per the AP. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said "oil revenues are the lifeblood of Putin's war economy." He added that "taking on Russian oil companies will drain Russia's war chest—and every ruble we take from Putin's hands helps save Ukrainian lives."
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