WASHINGTON, January 10. /TASS/. The lifting of Washington’s new package of sanctions on the Russian energy industry may be part of a deal on Ukraine between Moscow and the next US administration led by Donald Trump, a source close to the incoming administration told TASS.
"Today’s move by the Biden administration is significant in that it gives the incoming Trump administration the opportunity to include sanction relief as part of a potential Ukrainian peace plan," said the source, a former senior US administration official.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a TASS question about whether the new restrictions imposed by the Biden administration posed a threat to the US and global energy markets.
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.