The European Union has paid $38 billion for Russian energy since Vladimir Putin launched a war on Ukraine, a top EU official said. But the EU is weighing possible escrow accounts for Russian oil and gas payments. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the suggestion is constructive, and the US could consider it. Loading Something is loading.
The European Union has paid $38 billion for Russian energy since Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine, a top EU official said Wednesday.
The trading bloc, which imports roughly 60% of its energy needs, imposed sanctions on Moscow after the war began but largely avoided Russian oil and gas. While the EU has vowed to cut Russian energy imports and backed a proposal Wednesday to ban Russian coal, oil and gas continues to flow to states that the Kremlin has dubbed “unfriendly.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the EU’s 27 member states have made energy payments totaling about 35 billion euros, or roughly $38 billion, the trading bloc’s foreign-policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But EU officials are considering the establishment of escrow accounts into which the bloc could funnel at least some of its energy payments, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
An escrow account would effectively freeze overseas Russian energy revenue. But Putin has warned that Russia would cut off its energy supply if the country can’t access payments for it.
The same move was used to freeze a large swath of Iran’s foreign energy sales under the US and international sanctions over the last decade.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that creating an escrow account for Russian energy proceeds was one possible way the US and its allies could ramp up pressure on Moscow.
“It’s an approach worth exploring,” Yellen said during a hearing in Congress. “We have a way for Russia to sell oil and gain proceeds in the form of a general license. But the license is temporary; it will expire. We need probably a better mechanism. It is a constructive suggestion that we could work with you on.”
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