MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. /TASS/. Russia is guided by its own interests and will not "shoot itself in the foot" in case the West imposes a price cap on energy resources, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
He recalled President Vladimir Putin’ statement that Russia would not sell its oil and gas to such countries. "This is our position," he said in an interview with the Moscow.Kremlin.Putin program on the Rpssiya-1 television channel.
"But, obviously, we now see some figures [of this price cap]. There are many nuances we need to look at. That is why, having a key, so to say, course set by the president, we can be sure that we will not shoot ourselves in the foot anyway. We have learnt to be reasonable and be guided solely by our own interests," Peskov said.
The Group of Seven plans to impose an US-initiated price cap on Russian oil, since most of transport and insurance companies are headquartered in the G7 countries or their allies, such as Greece, Cyprus, Malta and others.
The current price on Russian oil is around 70 US dollars per barrel, taking into account the discount. So, from the economic point of view, it will matter little is the price cap is set at 65-70 US dollars per barrel. But is can have long-term strategic consequences in the event of an oil price hike. According to European experts, there is a risk that Russia will stop supplies to the countries that will join this mechanism, which will entail a dramatic growth of prices on the global market unless other oil producing countries increase production.
Reuters reported on Friday citing sources that diplomats from the European Union countries had postponed talks on the price cap on Russian oil to the next week.