RUSSIA – The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said on Tuesday that Moscow will not deliver oil to countries supporting price cap.

Rudenko said in an interview with the Russian daily Izvestia that the energy market is currently volatile, with a shortage and rising cost of energy resources.

Asked about the trade with countries that support anti-Russian sanctions, including Japan, he said Tokyo is bound by commitments to a price cap on Russian-origin oil, which he described as “an anti-market measure that disrupts supply chains.”

“As has been stated repeatedly, Russia will not supply oil to countries that support this provocative scheme,” he said.

On March 12, the US Treasury Department announced that, as part of changes to US sanctions policy, it had granted an exception for the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products until April 12.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that removing Russian oil sales from US sanctions was aimed at lowering energy prices on global markets due to the war in Iran.

The G7 price cap on Russian crude oil, introduced in December 2022, was designed as a dual-purpose mechanism to reduce Moscow’s energy revenues while maintaining global oil flows by prohibiting Western maritime services for cargoes sold above a set price.