Russia's President Vladimir Putin looks on during a meeting with his Belarus counterpart on the sidelines of an informal summit of the heads of state of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg on December 27, 2022. (Photo by ALEXEI DANICHEV / SPUTNIK / AFP)
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered Russia's long-awaited response to a Western price cap, signing a decree that bans the supply of oil and oil products to nations participating in the cap from February 1 for five months.
The Group of Seven major powers, the European Union and Australia agreed this month to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil effective from December 5 over Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine.
The Kremlin's decree stated: "This...comes into force on February 1, 2023, and applies until July 1, 2023."
Crude oil exports will be banned from February 1, but the date for the oil products ban will be determined by the Russian government and could be after February 1.
The decree includes a clause that allows for Putin to overrule the ban in special cases.
