Matthew Zweig John Hardie
Mounting evidence of Russian war crimes against Ukrainian civilians has spurred calls for sanctions against Russian energy exports, from which Bloomberg projects Russia will earn $321 billion this year—more than a one-third increase from 2021. While many in the West are understandably wary of roiling oil markets, there is a way for Washington and its allies to structure oil sanctions to minimize supply loss and price increases while inflicting financial pain on Moscow.
Rather than taking Russian barrels off the market, Western sanctions should aim to leave Russian supply intact while using so-called “secondary” sanctions to reduce Russia’s access to oil export revenues and offset the benefit to Moscow of higher oil prices. This sanctions regime should draw on lessons learned from the multilateral sanctions against Iran in 2011-2015, which enjoyed bipartisan support and helped force Tehran into nuclear negotiations. With some tailoring to current market realities, these kinds of sanctions can limit costs to American and allied consumers.
No comments:
Post a Comment