Marco Rubio says the US should target Russian oil, boost its energy production

The United States and its allies should prevent Russia from exporting oil and natural gas as an economic deterrent to its unjustified invasion of Ukraine, senator. Marco Rubio for CNBC on Tuesday.

On “croak box” The Florida Republican, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cited two reasons why the Russian president Russian President Vladimir Putin He thinks he can get away with attacking Ukraine: “No. 1 is oil and gas, and No. 2. Nuclear weapons. We have to take one of these two.”

Denuclearizing Russia away is not a real option. In fact, Putin put him Nuclear deterrent forces on high alert earlier this week.

This leaves penalties. But so far, the broad range of measures taken by America and Western countries to pressure Putin has not directly included Russian oil targeted due to concerns about driving up energy prices. US and international crude prices on Tuesday rose to its highest levels Since the summer of 2014, several insects after Russia have retaken the Crimea from Ukraine.

When asked if Russia should be prevented from exporting oil and gas as leverage in the current Ukraine crisis, Rubio said: “I think we can and should.”

Canada announced on Monday that it will ban imports of Russian oil, making it the only country directly targeting the Russian energy sector. Last week, Germany Stop Nord Stream 2 The Baltic Sea Natural Gas Pipeline Project, which was aimed at increasing the flow of Russian gas directly to Germany.

Rubio also said he would like to meet the president Joe Biden Tuesday night’s State of the Union address was used to encourage the United States to return to pre-Covid oil and natural gas production levels.

“What I would like to hear, I will not hear, is the president’s announcement that America is going back to aggressive production of oil and natural gas and also exporting them… and that we are going to do this in conjunction with the gradual reduction and eventual elimination of Russian oil imports.”

While Russia has not been the main supplier of oil to the United States, imports from Russia have increased in recent years. “The United States needs to get back to that point where we were in 2019 and 2020, when we were exporting more than we were importing,” Rubio said, calling it “the ultimate leverage” against Russia. He repeated his call in a subsequent tweet urging the United States to divert money from “criminals like Putin”.

Rubio As he told “Squawk Box” Tuesday, the world needs to keep up the economic pressure on Putin. “We need to make sure these things are sustainable.”

Russia’s currency, the ruble, collapsed on Monday under the weight of international sanctions. Trying to stop the decline, the Russian Central Bank Raised the key interest rate to 20% from 9.5%.

The Russian stock market closed in Moscow on Monday and remained that way on Tuesday. Nevertheless, Russian ETFs continued to trade in the United States, take a beating during the last two sessions.