US imposes sanctions on Russian oil over Putin's 'refusal' to end war in Ukraine

[Strelnikov_]

5. Not Really.

Per Phillips O’Brien

However, what If I were to tell you that what actually happened yesterday was that the sanctions that could really damage the Russian economy were put off for at least the next four weeks and even then no commitment was made to implement them—what would you think? For that is the reality. Instead of two weeks, in this case the Trump administration has provided some protection to foreign companies (think Chinese, Indian, Turkish, which are buying and refining lots of
Russian oil) until at least November 21.

Four more weeks.

What was sanctioned yesterday was US firms and individuals that deal with two large Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil (which together handle the flow of about half of Russian oil). Here is the US Treasury announcement. It looks pretty damn impressive—until you get to the small print. What you will see is that these sanctions are not automatically applied to foreign individuals or companies—the words used are “may result in” and “run the risk of” being sanctioned