Putin deplores U.S. sanctions as ’unfriendly’ while EU hits Russia with its own

“You can be sure that every oil buyer in Asia today is trying to find anything that floats that they can buy Russian oil before that sanction kicks in,” Weafer told The Associated Press from London. “And therefore, Russia will sell a lot of oil in the next 30 days, which probably will help the budget for a few months.” He also noted that, unlike the European sanctions, the U.S. measures carry the threat of secondary penalties against anyone violating them. China and India are major importers of Russian oil. The effectiveness of economic sanctions in forcing Putin’s hand is questionable, analysts say. Russia’s economy has proved resilient so far, although it is showing signs of strain. The new EU measures also target Russian oil and gas. They ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas into the bloc, and add port bans on more than 100 new ships in the Russian shadow fleet of hundreds of aging tankers that are dodging sanctions. The latest sanctions bring the total number of such ships to be banned to 557.