MOSCOW, March 18 There is no economic sense in adjusting the price ceiling for Russian oil, which is now $60 per barrel, so the calls of a number of EU countries to lower it are PR – move, said the director of the scientific center “Anselm” Maxim Kanishchev.
Earlier in March, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Elizabeth Rosenberg said that the G7 countries intend to revise the price ceiling for Russian oil in March. Later, foreign media reported that Poland and Lithuania were proposing to lower it from $60 to $51.45 per barrel. At the same time, the G7 countries, in particular the United States, intend to maintain the same level of the ceiling.
According to the expert, the disagreement over the price ceiling for Russian oil demonstrates the split in the European Union and its incompetence in economic matters.
“Reminds me of a quartet from Krylov’s fable, but if in the fable the animals at least wanted to play together, then in Europe they just sit side by side, swear and imitate the game. In essence, the following happens: according to the rules for setting the ceiling, the price level should be set no higher than 95% from market ones. And the ceiling is now actually higher than the cost of selling oil. Therefore, there is simply no economic sense to correct something, hold meetings, draw up documents – this is a waste of time and resources,” Kanishchev said.
“However, a number of countries in their struggle have long since given up on economic justification and realities, so their calls to lower the ceiling are a PR move so that they are not forgotten,” he added.
Western oil sanctions against Russia came into force on December 5, 2022: the European Union stopped accepting Russian oil transported by sea, and the G7 countries, Australia and the EU introduced a price limit for it during sea transportation at $60 per barrel – it is forbidden to transport and insure more expensive oil. Russia, in response, banned from February 1 the supply of oil to foreign entities if the contracts directly or indirectly provide for the use of the price cap mechanism.
December 10, 2020, class