US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington was exhausting the possibilities of imposing new sanctions against the Russian economy. He said this while speaking to reporters at a press conference in Canada on the night of 13 November, European time.
“There are no longer many possibilities left on our side. I don’t know what else can be done. We’re running out of options for sanctions on this,” the secretary of state said.
Rubio noted that the latest sanctions package targeted Russia’s largest oil companies.
“That’s what everybody has been asking for. Obviously, these sanctions have to be implemented, and it’s going to take some time before you start to feel the effects of them,” he said.
Asked by a journalist about sanctions against a “shadow fleet” of Russian tankers, the secretary of state said that the US “doesn’t impose sanctions to then not enforce them.”
“Measures against” the “shadow fleet” can be approved by the Europeans. After all, everything that happens around this fleet is much closer to them,” Rubio pointed out.
The US Treasury Department last month announced sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil and their subsidiaries. The measures are designed to increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and “impair” the Kremlin’s ability to generate revenue for its war machine, the Treasury Department said.
In May, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said after speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev that the U.S. Senate could begin consideration of a sanctions bill that has broad bipartisan support in the Senate. To pass the bill, it must be approved by the US Senate and House of Representatives and then signed by the president.
The bill envisages, among other things, the imposition of 500 per cent duties on imports from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and oil products.
Ukraine has repeatedly urged the West to tighten sanctions against Russia, accusing Moscow of dragging out negotiations on ending the war.