The US is stepping up sanctions against Russia, limiting energy payments, although peace negotiations with President Vladimir Putin’s government on the war in Ukraine are continuing.

The Trump government has quietly ended the license that allowed the clearance of energy transactions with Russian financial institutions that were still able to receive payments to US dollars through the well -known “General License 8”, which was in force since the start of the Russian invasion.

The government did not make public, nor publicly acknowledged that the license was expired, which was implemented by the outgoing Biden government as part of a sanction package implemented last January. Among the provisions of this package, the Biden government was limited to the standard six -month period for the license, setting its expiration at midnight on March 12.

Leaving permission to expire, “you will significantly destroy the revenue from Russia’s oil and gas,” said Edward Fisman, a former State Department official who worked for sanctions in Russia in 2014. Oil and gas to dollars or by expanding credit to any other western currency, you will be very difficult to do. “

The Trump government is seeking a peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev and met with Ukrainian officials earlier this week, who agreed to a proposal for a ceasefire for a month. Putin said on Thursday that he wants to discuss the ceasefire proposal with President Donald Trump, but stressed that any truce should lead to a long -term resolution of the war.

THE Minister of Finance, Scott Bessed said in an interview with CNBC that the US would not hesitate to impose additional sanctions on Russia To try to force the country to sit on the table and that Trump is “willing to put maximum pressure on both sides”.

A spokesman for the finance ministry confirmed on Friday that the license ended at 12:01 am. on March 12 and said that the Trump government would continue to impose sanctions as part of a strategy for ending the war.

The impact of the expiry is unclear, as many Russian energy buyers may already have complied with the restrictions on waiting for the exemption or may have created alternative means of payment that bypass western sanctions.

‘It’s definitely a tightening but the question is how much it affects this [σκληρό» δολλάριο  ή την αξία του πραγματικού εμπορίου πετρελαίου», δήλωσε ο Ντάνιελ Τάνεμπομ, πρώην αξιωματούχος του Υπουργείου Οικονομικών.