On Thursday Russia released its list of exports that are banned as retaliation against Western sanctions for its Russia Ukraine war.
“These measures are a logical response to those imposed against Russia and are aimed at ensuring uninterrupted functioning of key sectors of the economy,” the economy ministry said.
Notably, the only major commodity being banned is lumber, despite two days ago upon the initial announcement the Kremlin saying “certain commodities and raw materials” would fall under the ban. While not yet naming the precise list of specific items it’s said to include 200 total products…
“The list includes technical, telecommunication and medical equipment, vehicles, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment – more than 200 items in total, including railway cars and locomotives, containers, turbines, metal and stone processing machines, monitors, projectors, consoles and panels,” the Kremlin statement says. “This measure is necessary to ensure stability in the Russian market.”
Also on Thursday Russian President Putin addressed soaring energy prices in the West and worldwide, saying Washington is engaged in an empty blame-game. He urged the public not to accept the US narrative that he is to blame. According to a state media translation, Putin said:
“The prices there [for energy carriers in the EU countries] are growing, but not through our fault. This is the result of their own miscalculations. They should not blame us for this.”
“The same applies to the surge in prices for oil and petroleum products in the United States. They announced that they were closing the import of Russian oil to the American market, prices there are high, inflation is unprecedentedly high, probably reached all-time highs. They are trying to shift blame for the results of their own mistakes on us,” the Russian leader added.
And more via TASS:Â According to him, this is obvious to market experts, “because the supply of Russian oil to the American market does not exceed 3%.”
“This is a negligible volume, and their prices are rising. We have absolutely nothing to do with it, and even here the ban on Russian oil imports has absolutely nothing to do with it. They just hide behind these decisions in order to once again deceive their own population,” Putin said.
He further called out US hypocrisy for seeking to quickly do deals with Maduro’s Venezuela as well as the Islamic Republic:
“They are ready to make peace with Iran, immediately sign all the documents, and with Venezuela. They went to Venezuela to negotiate, but they should not have introduced these illegitimate sanctions,” he said. “The same will happen in relations with our country, I have no doubt about that.”