WASHINGTON, March 1. /TASS/. The US Administration recognizes that sanctions on the Russian energy sector can lead to destabilization of global markets but does not rule out such measures, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the briefing.
"We very much weigh is maximizing the impact on President Putin, the Russian elite, the economy, while minimizing it on the global markets and the American people," Psaki said.
"We have not taken some steps on energy sanctions, in part because we weighed that. That doesn't mean that they are off the table," she noted. "They remain on the table, but Europeans, for example, are very concerned about further price spikes on gas in particular, their prices have gone up 335% over the last three yes over the last year and 26% over the last five days. So sanctioning energy would affect Russia's income stream. Certainly that would be a reason to do it. But it would also have extreme consequences on the world energy markets, particularly for our allies in Europe," Psaki added.
"So I use that as an example because we have to weigh all of the factors as we weigh whether to take additional steps. We have additional steps we could take but we consider all of those factors as we make determination," the press secretary added.