Putin’s spox: Russia works on retaliation to West’s oil price cap

MOSCOW, Dec 5 (PRIME) -- Moscow is preparing retaliatory measures to the West’s U.S.$60 price cap on Russian oil, and will not acknowledge it, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

The G7 countries, the E.U. and Australia have agreed to introduce the price cap on Russian seaborne oil from Monday. The European Commission said the mechanism is adjustable in the future in order to respond to market developments.

“We are preparing them. The decisions are being prepared, but the single obvious thing here is that we will not acknowledge any caps,” Peskov said.

The U.S. are trying to assure its allies that the price cap would not affect the oil market, but the price of Russian oil will definitely change. At the same time, the price cap will have no impact on financing Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, he said.

The anti-Russian sanctions hurt Europe in general and the economy of Germany in particular, he added.

Russian Security Council’s Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said in a statement that all attempts to regulate prices because of the political circumstances always end with a price growth or with goods disappearing.

“The same will happen with oil. It will not disappear, obviously, but something unimaginable would happen to the price,” he said.

Nothing good will come from the price cap, he said.

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