The US government has been studying the possibility of removing further sanctions on Russian oil, with the aim of increasing global supply and controlling rising prices — seen mainly after the start of the war against Iran.
The possibility was raised by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last Friday. Bessent’s statement was given to the Fox Business television network, one day after the secretary himself announced a temporary 30-day exemption so that Russian merchandise can be sold in refineries in India, a country that the US had asked to stop oil transactions with Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“The Indians have been very good agents. We asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to replace it with American oil, but to alleviate the temporary oil shortage around the world, we gave them permission to accept Russian oil,” the secretary said.
Last month, in a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, American President Donald Trump requested that the country stop purchasing Venezuelan oil, a measure that, according to Trump, would help end the war in Ukraine by harming Russian coffers.
The Russians, in turn, have been trying to sell their oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production to other markets, since sanctions from countries in North America and Europe were imposed on the Putin regime since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine.
