European business lost at least €250 billion due to Western sanctions against Russia – Sergey Lavrov

Western sanctions on Russian exports have caused European businesses to lose at least €250 billion ($267 billion), its state-owned media agency TASS quoted Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov as saying.

PHOTO: Russian flag. Getty Images

Russia does not expect the “anti-Russian” sanctions and price caps imposed on Russian crude oil to disappear anytime soon, “as the West intends to ruin the world economy for teaching Moscow a lesson,” the Russian minister said.

Global energy security has been “hit hard and expensively redistributed” because of these sanctions, Lavrov claimed. “Sanctions against Russia aggravated the crisis developments of the global economy,” he further added.

“The Russian energy boycott that has been announced, unilateral sanctions and anti-business measures, I mean, in particular, the much-speculated price cap, has hit the global energy security hard,” Lavrov said.

The Russian minister further criticised the US for imposing the “green transition” forcefully on nations that were “simply unready” for transitioning from traditional fuels to greener energy sources economically.  

“Negative developments in the energy sector were triggered by irresponsible actions by the collective West when it decided to expedite the green transition at home,” Lavrov said. The West’s move to cut down on investment in the global oil and gas sector “sharply within the framework of this green transition” has also damaged the global economy, Lavrov further claimed.

G7 ministers reaffirm oil sanctions against Russia

Meanwhile, the G7 group of countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, and the “non-enumerated member” EU - and Australia have reaffirmed their unity on sanctions against Russian exports, including crude oil and refined products.

At a recent meeting held in Tokyo, foreign ministers of the G7 nations confirmed that it will “remain united in its attitude to impose severe sanctions against Russia and provide strong support for Ukraine,” TASS cited a statement released by Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

Among the imposed sanctions, the price cap coalition of G7 members set price caps on exports of Russian crude and refined products in retaliation to the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this year, two price caps on Russian refined products were set. The first one was a price cap of $100/bbl on products such as diesel and gasoil that trade at a premium to crude and a cap of $45/bbl on products like fuel oil that are traded at a discount to crude.

They had also previously set a price cap of $60/bbl on crude oil originating from Russia.

By Aparupa Mazumder 

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