reactions
Criticism came from Moscow. According to Leonid Slutsky, a prominent Russian foreign policy expert and member of the Duma, the European Union is endangering its energy security with the price cap for Russian oil. In addition, the EU is also violating market laws, as the state agency TASS reported on Slutski’s reaction on Friday. “The EU is endangering its own energy security. They didn’t put a lid on it, they broke the bottom once more.” And all this to “satisfy the ambitions of overseas partners,” said Slutsky, referring to the United States. “But the Europeans cannot expect any help from there.” Slutsky heads the Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma.
The US government welcomed the EU’s agreement on a price cap for Russian oil. “This is good news,” said National Security Council communications director John Kirby on Friday. US President Joe Biden advocated this very emphatically at the G7 summit in the summer. “We believe the price cap will have the desired effect by limiting Mr Putin’s ability to profit from oil sales and his ability to continue using that money to fund his war machine,” Kirby said Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war once morest Ukraine. “We think the price of $60 a barrel is reasonable and believe it will have that effect,” Kirby said. There is also the possibility to adjust this value in the future.
Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has described the price cap for Russian oil of 60 US dollars per barrel as the currently best possible compromise. “It’s no secret that we wanted the price to be lower,” she said on Friday following the agreement between the EU countries. “Every dollar counts.”
