Move restricts Moscow’s war revenues via oil sales to India, China

By TN Ashok

NEW YORK: On Wednesday October 22, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, and a range of their subsidiaries. The move is explicitly linked to the war in Ukraine: the Treasury states the action “increase[s] pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade[s] the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy.”

At face value this appears to be a significant escalation in U.S. policy under Trump’s second term — it is “the first Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia in Trump’s 2nd term.”

But the broader pattern is familiar: bold rhetoric, a dramatic announcement, then

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