March 9, 2022

Russia and the US showed no signs of stopping biting each other's head off despite progress to a certain extent in Russia-Ukraine talks, with a Russian official announcing Moscow's readiness to respond to sanctions that will be swift and sensitive for targeted countries, just hours after the US announced a ban on Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports and the UK outlined a plan to phase out Russian oil, as Washington took the opportunity of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to press further economic cutoff between Russia and the West, economists said. 

The US' move to urge European allies on energy sanctions against Russia has a very "selfish" motive inside, as not only does the US look to weaken Europe's self-independence strategy by binding Europe's economic ties with the US, but also the country is using Russia-targeted sanctions as an excuse to ruthlessly extend its crackdown on third-party countries, including China, they said. 

Chinese officials reiterated their stance in opposing unilateral sanctions on Wednesday, while experts said the chances are very small that China's energy supplies will have any severe disruptions as a result of the world energy crisis, although China will also feel the sting of global crude and natural gas price jump.

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