FSUOGM: Novak warns that Russian energy sanctions are like a "boomerang"

Russian Deputy Prime Minister and former energy minister Alexander Novak has warned that sanctions against Russia’s energy sector act like a “boomerang,” hurting the countries that introduced them more.

The EU declared earlier this month that it would ban Russian coal imports, and the European Commission has signalled it will impose restrictions on oil supplies as well in its upcoming sanctions package. While the bloc would struggle greatly to wean itself off Russian gas in the near term, it has the ambition of reducing supplies by as much as two thirds by the end of the year and phasing them out entirely by the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, numerous buyers have on their own initiative ended energy purchases from Russia.

“Economic sanctions against Russia, which were announced by a number of unfriendly states, have had an unprecedented impact on the global economy and its key industries, including energy,” Novak said in a commentary published by Russia’s Energeticheskaya Politika journal on April 15. “The situation is developing according to the boomerang principle – the negative consequences have largely affected precisely those countries that initiated the sanctions restrictions.”

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