WASHINGTON, January 10. /TASS/. The outgoing US administration insists that the next US president, Donald Trump, will only be able to revoke Washington’s new package of sanctions on Russia’s energy sector through the US Congress.
"I believe so," White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said at a briefing, when asked if Trump would have to go to Congress to claw back those restrictions.
"I mean, these are executive actions taken by President Biden. I'd leave it to the next administration to determine what - if any - follow-on executive actions they might want to take," he pointed out.
A senior US administration official said earlier that on January 10, US President Joe Biden had imposed the most significant sanctions yet on Russia’s energy sector. The restrictions target Russian oil and liquefied natural gas, and Washington expects its actions "to cost Russia upwards of billions of dollars per month."
In particular, the blacklist includes the Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas oil companies, as well as 183 tankers, traders, oilfield services firms, and senior officials at the Russian Energy Ministry and private energy companies.
Another Washington administration official noted that the US had narrowed the Department of the Treasury’s license that allowed the Western financial system to process purchase-and-sale transactions of Russian energy.