WASHINGTON – The Biden administration plans to ban imports of oil and natural gas from Russia as soon as Tuesday, aiming to punish Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The move represents one of America’s most far-reaching actions to penalize Moscow since the beginning of the war.
Europe, which is far more dependent on Russian energy exports, is currently considering its own similar ban. Collectively, bans from both the U.S. and Europe on Russian energy would deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of one of his government’s chief sources of revenue – but also risk a shock to the global economic system that could severely damage the west’s economies.
The once-unthinkable ban has gained momentum everyday more images pour in from the front of the war. The United States has already deployed a number of economic measures to hurt Russia, including imposing sanctions on its central bank and oligarchs close to Putin. The administration up to now had sought to protect global energy markets from the impact of banning Russian oil and gas, and while keeping a wary eye on soaring gas prices in the United States.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak Tuesday morning to announce “actions to continue to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement. The domestic consequences of a move could be severe; the Dow Jones industrial average closed down around 800 points on Monday, a drop of about 2.4%.
Commuters will see gas prices north of $5 per gallon if Europe and America join in banning Russian energy exports, according to the preliminary estimates of Bob McNally, consultant and president of Rapidan Energy Group, an energy market research firm, and a former official in the George W. Bush administration.
People will stop driving if gas prices continue to rise quickly, experts predict, a development that could ripple throughout the economy. Currently, Russia produces about 11% of the world’s oil, or roughly 10.5 million barrels a day.
“There will be a global recession,” McNally said. “It’s pretty much lights out for the global economy if we ban Russian oil exports. … The only thing would be demand destruction, which would be bone-crushing price increases. I don’t see any way out.”
But America and Europe have been pushed into dramatic action as the international outcry builds over Russia’s brutal push into Ukraine.
“History is going to remember much better what we did or did not do to stand up for freedom than it is going to remember the inflation rate, or the price of gasoline, in the spring and summer of 2022,” said Larry Summers, a former Democratic treasury secretary who remains in close contact with senior White House officials.
The news that the White House was moving as soon as Tuesday to enact the Russia oil ban was first reported by Bloomberg.
Senior officials across the Biden administration have spent the last several days exploring drastic measures to protect the global economy from the impact of the ban.
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Jeff Stein, Tyler Pager 
{Matzav.com}