Republican Senator Rick Scott introduced this week a new bill that would prohibit federal agencies from doing business with any entity that contracts with the Russian energy industry.
“Senator Rick Scott introduced the bicameral Keeping Russia’s Energy and Military Liable for Invading its Neighbors (KREMLIN) Act to prohibit federal agencies from doing business with any entity that contracts with Putin’s evil regime or his cronies in the Russian natural gas, oil, and coal sector,” Senator Scott said in a statement on Thursday.
Representative Michael Waltz introduced the companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“As Russia wages war against Ukraine and threatens democracy and our national security in Europe, the United States must ensure that no American tax dollars are being used to support Putin’s evil regime,” Senator Scott said.
Representative Michael Waltz said, “Put simply, the U.S. government should not be contracting with companies profiting from, and supporting, Putin’s war crimes.”
The bill includes exemptions in cases involving vital humanitarian aid or U.S. national security interests.
In the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States banned imports of all Russian energy products—including oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and coal—to the United States.
Last week, after weeks of negotiations, the EU also banned Russian oil imports via sea by the end of the year.
Russia is likely getting more revenues from oil and gas now than before the war in Ukraine, U.S. energy security envoy Amos Hochstein said at a Senate subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
On the same day, Russia said that it had added the equivalent of $9.4 billion to its government emergency reserve fund, with the money coming from extra oil and gas revenues the country had received so far in 2022. Russia expects to receive as much as $6.37 billion in additional oil and gas revenues in June alone, its finance ministry said last week, as energy commodity prices have rallied since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
