US Minister of Finance Janet Yellen held negotiations with Cyprus colleague Konstantinos Petrides in order to convince the European state to ban the transportation of Russian oil to third countries, but Petrides answered this proposal, writes Bloomberg with reference to sources close to negotiations with both sides.
According to the publication, Cyprus refused the United States, arguing its position with high demand for Russian energy in third countries, as well as the lack of such prohibitions in other countries. Bloomberg recalls that the initial version of the sixth package of European Union sanctions against Russia involved the introduction of a ban on transporting Russian oil to third countries, but the ban was canceled after lobbying from countries whose companies are strongly dependent on this source of income – Greece, Malta and Cyprus. Tankers under the flags of these three countries are the main conductors of Russian oil in third countries.
In addition to this issue of prohibition on transportation, Yellen and Petrides discussed another mechanism of reduction – the introduction of a ceiling of prices for Russian energy carriers, which is currently discussed as part of the Great Seven summit, which also contains the head of the European Council Charles Michelle and the head European Commission Ursula von der Layen. There is no clear description of the mechanism for the introduction of the maximum price for Russian oil yet, but sources say that the price is proposed to be affected by transportation and supply insurance.