Treasury Secretary Says Oil Cap Working for Russia

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said despite the fact that Russia has managed to use ships and insurance companies from countries that didn't agree to a price cap on Russian oil sales, the sanction is working.

Yellen, who was speaking to reporters last week on the sidelines of the G-20 conference in New Delhi, said, "Our estimate is that Russia's revenue from oil has declined by around 44% over the last year."

She said that the $60/barrel price cap only applies to oil using services from the countries that agreed to the cap, and since Russia is using services from other countries, that's not a violation of the cap. It is more expensive for Russia to get those services from countries outside the coalition, she said, which therefore "erodes the revenue that Russia is able to receive on net from those sales."

Yellen added, "And certainly, there are substantial sales that are occurring as well using Western services. And as far as we can tell -- and we're certainly monitoring for evasion of the sanctions -- these sales are occurring below the $60 price cap. So, I do believe it continues to work."