Biden levies new sanctions against Russian energy sector

US President Joe Biden’s administration has announced that it is expanding sanctions against Russia’s critically important energy sector, unveiling a new effort to inflict pain on Moscow for its nearly three-year-old war in Ukraine.

It comes as President-elect Donald Trump gets set to return to office vowing to quickly end the conflict.

The outgoing Democratic administration billed the new sanctions as the most significant to date against Moscow’s oil and liquefied natural gas sectors, the driver of Russia’s economy.

Officials said the sanctions, which punish entities that do business with the Russians, have the potential to cost the Russian economy upward of billions of dollars per month.

More than 180 oil-carrying vessels that are suspected to be part of a shadow fleet utilised by the Kremlin to evade oil sanctions as well as traders, oil field service firms and Russian energy officials are also targeted by the new sanctions.

Several of the vessels targeted are also suspected of shipping sanctioned Iranian oil, according to the US Treasury Department.

British officials were also announcing complementary sanctions against Russia’s energy sector on Friday. Both countries are targeting two of Russia’s major oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, and dozens of the companies’ subsidiaries.

“The United States is taking sweeping action against Russia’s key source of revenue for funding its brutal and illegal war against Ukraine,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

“With today’s actions, we are ratcheting up the sanctions risk associated with Russia’s oil trade, including shipping and financial facilitation in support of Russia’s oil exports.”

Biden administration officials said that it will ultimately be up to Mr Trump’s administration whether to keep or scrap the new sanctions.

Mr Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the sanctions. But Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.

Mr Trump’s warm relationship with Mr Putin over the years has come under heavy scrutiny. The Republican president-elect has also balked at the cost of aid to Kyiv, pledging to move quickly to end the conflict upon his return to office on January 20.

Mr Trump added a new layer of doubt about future American support earlier this week when he appeared to sympathize with Mr Putin’s position that Ukraine should not be part of Nato.

The president-elect has criticised the Biden administration for expressing support for Kyiv’s eventual membership in the transatlantic military alliance.

The Kremlin on Friday dismissed the new sanctions ahead of the anticipated announcement.

“We are aware that the administration will try to leave as difficult legacy in bilateral relations as possible for Trump and his team,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The designation comes under a sanctions authority approved during Russia’s 2014 invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, according to administration officials who briefed reporters on the the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

Should the Trump administration move to roll back the sanctions, it would have to first notify Congress, which would have the ability to take a vote of disapproval of such a move, the officials added.

The Biden administration unveiled a new 500 million-dollar (£409 million) military aid package on Thursday as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky met US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Mr Zelensky had been scheduled to meet Mr Biden in Italy on Friday, but Mr Biden scrapped his plans to travel overseas so he could remain in Washington to help oversee the federal response to the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles.

Mr Trump earlier this week expressed concern at the loss of life during the conflict, while arguing that “this war would never have happened” if he were president.