The Group of Seven or G7 (made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) remains firm in its commitment to maintain and expand sanctions on Russia until it loses the ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine .
On the sidelines of the G7 summit, the leaders signaled they would continue to cut Russia’s revenues, now through an embargo on gold imports and a focus on evasion and padding activities.
“We will further reduce Russia’s export earnings by taking appropriate measures to decrease dependence on Russian energy. We will continue to coordinate tariff measures and explore possible ways to use the proceeds to help Ukraine where appropriate,” they said in a statement.
They also discuss imposing an oil price cap, which is aimed at hitting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest while lowering energy prices.
A senior US official told Reuters that “the double objective of the G7 leaders is to directly target Putin’s income (mainly through energy) but to minimize the indirect effects and the impact on the G7 economies and the rest of the world”.
Western sanctions have hit the Russian economy hard and the new measures are aimed at further depriving the Kremlin of oil revenues. The G7 countries would work with countries like India to limit the revenue that Putin can continue to generate, the Washington official said.
India has refrained from criticizing Russia and provided a market for Russian oil, gas and coal in its bid to balance longstanding ties with Moscow and relations with the West.
The leaders said they will continue to look for ways to further restrict Russia from key industrial inputs, services and technologies produced by their economies.