NOAH GORDON
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a complete import ban on all Russian oil as part of the EU’s latest sanctions package, declaring that Russian President Vladimir Putin “must pay a high price for his brutal aggression.” Though Russia’s oil sales to the EU are the immediate target of the sanctions, one key provision in the draft text could impair Russia’s ability to sell oil worldwide.
The motivation for the ban is to stop Europeans from paying high prices for Russian energy and to close off the Russian petrostate’s most important market for its most important export. The EU has spent more than $20 billion on Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine, and those earnings are crucial for the Russian state, making up about 40 percent of its federal budget. Russia’s oil exports are typically worth more than twice as much as its gas exports, and the EU is the destination for nearly half of its oil exports.
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