Putin: US Shouldn’t Blame Russia for Rise in Gas Prices

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart at the Kremlin in Moscow on Feb. 22, 2022. Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that the United States and Western countries shouldn’t blame Russia and its conflict with Ukraine for high gas prices domestically.

“Supplies of Russian oil, say, to the American market do not exceed 3 percent. This is a negligible amount. And their prices are growing. We have absolutely nothing to do with it,” Putin said on Thursday, according to state-run media.

Putin further said that the White House is trying to pass off its own economic failures on Russia, adding that they “just hide behind these decisions in order to deceive once again their own population.”

As of Thursday, automotive group AAA found that prices nationwide average about $4.31 for a gallon of regular gas. California, which usually has the highest prices in the United States, averages $5.60 per gallon.

Two days before that, President Joe Biden announced that his administration would block the importation of Russian oil and petroleum products while saying that there will be costs associated with the penalties against Russia. Those penalties, among others, were enforced due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said.

“But Americans can know this: the costs we are imposing on Putin and his cronies are far more devastating than the costs we are facing,” Biden said Thursday. Biden also told reporters earlier this week that he ”can’t do much” to alleviate the pain at the pump.

Even though inflation has been surging for months—the highest in more than 40 years—the White House has pivoted to pinning the rise in prices on the Russia–Ukraine war. Republicans in Congress have against seized on the rise in inflation, blaming the administration for high gas prices and other goods.

“Americans’ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike,” Biden in a statement on Thursday. “A large contributor to inflation this month was an increase in gas and energy prices as markets reacted to Putin’s aggressive actions.”

He added: “I know that higher prices impact a family’s budget, which is why I am fighting to bring down the everyday prices that are squeezing Americans.”

Republicans and other critics, however, have said that Biden’s executive orders suspending the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, as well as orders that suspend new drilling, are partially to blame for the surge in gas prices and inflation.

Also Thursday, Putin said that he believes that in the future, the United States will eventually attempt to normalize relations with Russia—despite the recent sanctions—because of its vast reserves of oil and natural resources.

“They are ready to make peace with Iran, immediately sign all the documents, and with Venezuela. They went to Venezuela to negotiate, but they should not have introduced these illegitimate sanctions,” the Russian head-of-state said, according to state media. “The same will happen in relations with our country, I have no doubt about that.”