US ‘running out of things to sanction’ in Russia – Rubio

Washington has nearly exhausted its list of viable targets for sanctions against Moscow, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, following its latest move to blacklist two of Russia’s largest oil companies.

In late October, US President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on energy majors Lukoil and Rosneft, a move that Rubio said was made at the request of Ukraine and its backers.

Washington also disrupted Lukoil’s attempt to sell its foreign assets to a Swiss-based energy trader, which the US Treasury Department claimed had ties to the Russian government.

“We hit their major oil companies, which is what everybody’s been asking for,” Rubio told reporters. “I don’t know what more there is to do. I mean, we’re running out of things to sanction in that regard.”

The top US diplomat added that targeting the so-called “Russian shadow fleet” – tankers that Western governments accuse of transporting oil covertly in defiance of their punitive measures – should now fall to European nations, as “a lot of these are happening in areas much closer to them.”

The US and its allies have sought to cripple the Russian economy with sanctions and provide an advantage to Ukraine in the ongoing conflict. However, Moscow maintains that its economy has adapted, redirecting trade to non-Western markets.

Meanwhile, Ukraine faces a worsening financial crisis, with reports suggesting that it may run out of cash as early as February without an increase of Western aid. The European Union is pushing for a €140 billion ($160 billion) “reparation loan” to keep Kiev afloat, using frozen Russian sovereign assets as collateral – a move Moscow has condemned as outright theft.

Belgium, which holds the majority of the immobilized Russian funds through the clearing house Euroclear, has blocked the proposal, demanding that other Western states share the financial and legal risks.

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