US sanctions Russian oil companies after Trump cancels Putin summit

• For months, Trump has said imposing sanctions on Russia would harm his diplomatic efforts to end the war. This change suggests that he thinks this approach has failed.
• The new sanctions come a day after Trump canceled plans to meet with Putin. This speaks to Trump’s immense frustration with the Russian president.

Behind the scenes: A U.S. official said Trump’s frustration with Russia reached new heights after a call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday.

• The call ended without any progress and led to the conclusion that the Russians are unable to reach an agreement to end the war and therefore there is no sense in holding a meeting between Trump and Putin, the US official said.
• This conclusion paved the way for Trump’s decision to impose new sanctions against Russia.

Driving the news: The Treasury Department announced Thursday that it had imposed new sanctions against Oil company Rosneft and Lukoil OAO.

• Both companies specialize in the exploration, extraction, production, refining, transportation and sale of oil, natural gas and petroleum products in Russia and abroad.
• The Treasury Department also sanctioned several subsidiaries of the two companies.
• All assets and interests of the designated companies or persons in the United States will be frozen and U.S. persons or entities will not be permitted to do business with them.
• “Sanctions increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade the Kremlin’s ability to generate revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

What he says: In a meeting with NATO Secretary General Marc Rutte shortly after the sanctions were announced, Trump said he believed it was time to impose sanctions on Russia.

• “I’ve waited a long time. These are heavy sanctions. We hope they won’t last long and the war will be settled. We would like to see them take the (contact) line and go home,” Trump said of Russia and Ukraine.
• Trump added that he hoped Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “will become reasonable,” adding: “It takes two to tango.”
• Trump said he “canceled” his planned meeting with Putin because he felt it would not lead to any results at this time. “We will do it in the future,” he said.
• Trump said that every time he spoke to Putin, they had good conversations and then went nowhere. »

Please note: He said one of the reasons he decided not to supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine was that it took six to 12 months to train to operate them.