WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration said Friday it is expanding sanctions against Russia’s critically essential energy sector, signaling a new attempt to inflict pain on Moscow over its bitter war in Ukraine while President-elect Donald Trump will fulfill his duties in office to quickly end the conflict.
The outgoing Democratic government described the new sanctions as the most significant yet against Moscow’s oil and liquefied natural gas sector, the engine of the Russian economy. Officials said the sanctions, which will punish companies that do business with the Russians, could cost the Russian economy billions of dollars a month.
More than 180 oil transport ships, believed to be part of a shadow fleet used by the Kremlin to evade oil sanctions, as well as traders, oil field service providers and Russian energy officials are also affected by the new sanctions. According to the Treasury Department, several of the ships attacked are also suspected of carrying sanctioned Iranian oil.
“Putin is in tough shape right now, and I think it’s really important that he doesn’t have breathing room to continue doing the terrible things that he’s continued to do,” Biden told reporters.
In the move coordinated with Washington, the UK also imposed sanctions on Russian energy companies. Both the United States and Britain are targeting two of Russia’s largest oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as dozens of the companies’ subsidiaries.
The Foreign Office said the two companies together produce more than a million barrels of oil per day, worth $23 billion a year. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “Oil revenues are the lifeblood of Putin’s war economy.”
“The attack on Russian oil companies will deplete Russia’s war chest – and every ruble we take out of Putin’s hands will help save Ukrainian lives,” he said.
The United Kingdom has already imposed sanctions on nearly 100 ships in Russia’s oil-transporting “shadow fleet” as Ukraine’s Western allies seek to boost economic pressure on Moscow ahead of negotiations to end the war.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration chose this moment – just 10 days before Biden leaves office – to take tougher oil measures because concerns about global oil markets had eased. Biden told reporters he expects the move could cost drivers “three, four cents a gallon” at the pump.
“That was really based on market conditions,” Kirby added. “And so the timing was right for this decision, and that’s why the president made it.”
The Foreign Ministry also announced that it would impose travel bans on 14 senior Rosatom officials and executives, including their immediate family members.
Biden administration officials said it will ultimately be up to the Trump administration whether to keep or lift the new sanctions.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sanctions.
Asked whether the Biden administration had consulted with the incoming Trump team, Kirby replied: “We have kept the transition team informed every step of the way and on every major matter about our decisions, what we are doing and why we are doing it “Kept up to date.”
Trump’s new national security adviser, Mike Waltz, wrote in an opinion piece for The Economist published just before Election Day that the US should “use economic influence” to “crack down on Russia’s illegal oil sales” to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table .
Meanwhile, Trump told reporters on Thursday that Putin “wants to meet and we’ll arrange it.”
Trump’s hot relationship with Putin over the years has come under intense scrutiny. The Republican president-elect has also pushed back against the cost of aid to Kyiv and vowed to act quickly to end the conflict upon his return to office on January 20.
Trump added a new layer of doubt about future American support earlier this week when he appeared to sympathize with Putin’s position that Ukraine should not be part of NATO. The president-elect has criticized the Biden administration for expressing support for Kyiv’s possible membership in the transatlantic military alliance.
Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday to mark the announcement of the sanctions. He discussed his administration’s continued support for efforts to contain Russia and underscored the need to continue that support. The White House said Zelensky expressed his appreciation for the United States
“I know there are a significant number of Democrats and Republicans on the Hill who think we should continue to support Ukraine,” Biden told reporters after the call. “I hope and expect that they will speak out … if Trump decides to stop funding Ukraine.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned Friday that a decline in support for Ukraine would have repercussions far beyond Kiev. He noted that over the past four years, the U.S. has relied on cooperation with European allies to develop a strategy to deal with growing economic competition from China.
“I think it’s obvious that if the U.S. pulls the rug out from under Ukraine, that will have an impact on the health of our European alliances and will have an impact on the Indo-Pacific,” Sullivan said in a conversation with a petite group of reporters at the White House.
The Kremlin dismissed the new sanctions on Friday, ahead of the expected announcement.
“We are aware that the administration will try to leave Trump and his team the most difficult legacy possible in bilateral relations,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The designation falls under a sanctions authority approved during Russia’s invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, according to administration officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
Should the Trump administration attempt to roll back the sanctions, it would first have to notify Congress, which would have the opportunity to veto such a move, the officials added.
The shadow fleet consists of aging tankers that are bought used, often from foggy companies with addresses in unsanctioned countries like the United Arab Emirates or the Marshall Islands, and fly flags from places like Gabon or the Cook Islands. Some of the ships belong to the Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot. Their job is to aid Russia’s oil exporters avoid the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.
Finnish authorities suspect that a Russian-linked Shadow Fleet ship was involved in a possible sabotage that severed key power and communications cables under the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia on December 25.
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David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, Jill Lawless in London and Matthew Lee contributed reporting
