Russian lawmaker foresees benefit from EU oil embargo

Amid surging energy prices, Russian lower house chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday said Russia's economy may benefit from the EU oil embargo imposed as part of the sixth sanctions package, while the EU member countries are set to overpay about USD 268 billion annually.

"Russia's possible losses caused by a ban on oil exports to Europe, according to experts, could amount to $22 billion a year. But due to surging energy prices, prompted by the sanctions and redirection of Russian oil markets to Asia, the costs can be fully compensated, with a possible profit for our economy," Sputnik quoted Volodin as saying on Telegram.

The politician went on to say that Europe will overpay more than 250 billion euros annually apart from additional costs of enterprises' transition to new oil brands.

"Washington is doing everything so that the main burden from the implementation of sanctions falls on European countries. It is deliberately weakening the EU economies to make them even more dependent on the US, seeking to govern countries that previously strived for greater independence. Now these states can hardly even think about it," Volodin added.

This week European Union officially approved the sixth package of sanctions against Moscow, including a gradual phase-out of Russian oil and disconnection of more Russian banks from SWIFT.

"In light of Russia's continuing war of aggression against Ukraine and Belarus' support to it, as well as the reported atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Ukraine, the Council decided today to impose a sixth package of economic and individual sanctions targeting both Russia and Belarus," the European Council said in a statement.

The new package includes a ban on "the purchase, import or transfer of crude oil and certain petroleum products from Russia into the EU," with the phase-out of Russian oil set to take "from 6 months for crude oil to 8 months for other refined petroleum products."

"A temporary exception is foreseen for imports of crude oil by pipeline into those EU member states that, due to their geographic situation, suffer from a specific dependence on Russian supplies and have no viable alternative options. Moreover, Bulgaria and Croatia will also benefit from temporary derogations concerning the import of Russian seaborne crude oil and vacuum gas oil respectively," the statement said.