MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Russia will soon prepare a response to the imposed price cap for its oil, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Channel One.
"We're getting closer. As soon as the experts finish their work, everything will be made public," he said.
Peskov also believes that the situation with tankers blocked in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits is not related with the discussion between Moscow and Ankara on the prices for Russian gas supplies. "It would be stupid to engage in blackmail, because it will destabilize the global energy markets, and Turkey is absolutely dependent on them," he explained.
Peskov said earlier in an interview with Izvestia that Russia will not trade with those who support the oil price cap, there are other buyers. "Of course, Russia will not trade with those who somehow adhere to the price cap. This is out of the question, President [of the Russian Federation Vladimir] Putin has already talked about this," Peskov said. He added that in certain areas the number of buyers of Russian oil may decrease.
Peskov stressed that it does not mean that the global oil demand is declining. "Other buyers are emerging. A number of states over the past many months have dramatically increased the volume of oil and oil products purchased from us," he said.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said earlier that the Russian Finance Ministry considers it too early to assess the effect on the budget from the introduction of a price cap on Russian oil, but Russia is preparing retaliatory measures. "So far, it is too early to talk about the impact on the budget. We are now preparing retaliatory, reciprocal measures regarding how our companies will react to the introduction of the price cap," Siluanov said. He noted that such measures will be announced in the near future.
The minister called the introduction of a price cap a non-market measure that would have implications for the world market. "It is clear that these are non-market mechanisms. The West has always called on us to use transparent, market-based measures, influencing the economy. Although we have seen this before, itself it uses double standards. This is happening now. But you cannot deceive the market," Siluanov said.