White House Not to Impose Sanctions on Russian Oil

The US administration will not sanction Russian crude oil because that would harm US consumers and not Vladimir Putin, a US State Department official said on Friday.
“The sanctions will not target the oil flows as we go forward,” Amos Hochstein, the department’s senior energy security adviser, said in an interview, Bloomberg reported.
The remarks underscore the US administration’s approach to sanctions that are intended to maximize pain for the Russian president while minimizing the blowback for US and European consumers. 
“If we target the oil and gas sector for Putin, and in this case the Russian energy establishment, then prices would spike. Perhaps he would sell only half of his product, but for double the price,” Hochstein said. 
“That means he would not suffer the consequences while the United States and our allies would suffer the consequences.”
Oil prices have already eased in response, Hochstein said, and the administration “can see prices go down from here”.
Oil prices topped $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014, following Russia’s invasion on Ukraine on fears that the move would lead to harsher sanctions from the West.