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Russia says Ukraine's idea of $30 oil cost cap \beyond all bounds\

Russia said on Thursday that the United States was not likely to accept a Ukrainian proposal to lower the price cap on Russian oil to $30 a barrel because it would roil international energy markets and damage the U.S. economy.

After Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the West sought to sink the Russian economy by enforcing a myriad of sanctions and in 2022 slapped a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian oil << URL-PRMSK >, which is currently traded at around $68. per barrel.

Before the cap was set, Ukrainian President Volodymyr. Zelenskiy in November 2022 advised a limitation in between $30 and $40 per. barrel.

The $60 cap has actually up until now been preserved despite variations. in the oil price and calls by some countries for a lower cap to. further restrict Moscow's earnings.

The United States has actually enforced sanctions on dozens of tankers. suspected of bring oil above the price cap agreed by G7, the. EU and Australia.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia's wartime economy--. which grew 3.6% in 2015-- has grown in spite of the sanctions,. which Russia, the world's second biggest oil exporter, has. plenty of buyers for its oil.

Recently I check out that Ukraine was trying to convince. the United States to decrease the cap price on Russian oil to $30 a. barrel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated in an. interview released on the Foreign Ministry site.

This exceeds all bounds.

It is significant that the United States is unlikely to go. along with Ukraine, Lavrov stated. He argued that such a lowering. of the cap would have a serious influence on both the global oil. market and on the U.S. economy.

Russia has more than 5% of the world's tested oil reserves. and about of quarter of the world's tested gas reserves. while OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, controls about 80% of the. world's oil reserves, according to OPEC figures.

SAUDI ARABIA

Lavrov, Putin's foreign minister since 2004, stated that the. United States put immense pressure on the House of Saud in the. 1980s to collapse the cost of oil to weaken the Soviet Union.

Inquired about relations with Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince,. Mohammed bin Salman, praised Putin on his election on and. who has cooperated closely with Moscow as part of the OPEC+. group, Lavrov stated Saudi had actually pursued its own policy.

I would not state that they have actually set a course away from the. United States, Lavrov stated.

They just decided to pursue their national policy so that. nobody (from the left or the right, or from above or from below). need to interfere with them, consisting of, many of all, the United. States.

While Russia says it will never give in to the United. States, which Putin casts as a declining empire battling a proxy. war with Russia in Ukraine, Russia's energy sector has actually dealt with. severe challenges from the fallout of the war in Ukraine.

Russia's Gazprom has lost most of the European. market - which Moscow spent about half a century slowly building. after the Soviets created gas pipelines westwards from Siberia in. the early 1970s.

Putin's quote to reorient Russia's huge energy exports. eastwards faces massive difficulties - both the large distances to. Asian markets and the tough negotiations with China about. the rate.

There will be no lack of consumers. Take Africa - we. have doubled the export of petroleum items there over the. past year and a half, Lavrov said.

He stated China and India would be able to soak up oil supply. from the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers.

(source: Reuters)