*Releases 30m barrels of oil from US strategic reserves
United States President Joe Biden on Thursday linked the record inflation rate in the country with the situation in Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions.
“Today’s [Labor Department] inflation report is a reminder that American budgets are draining due to rising prices and families [in the US] are beginning to feel the effects of price increases [because of Russian President Vladimir] Putin.
“As I said right from the start, we will have domestic costs as we impose crippling sanctions in response to Putin’s unwarranted war,” the U.S. president said in a written statement.
“As I said from the beginning, we will have domestic costs as we impose crippling sanctions in response to Putin’s unwarranted war, but Americans should know that the costs we are imposing on Putin and his cronies are much more damaging than those that lie ahead of us,” Biden added.
He stressed that he is making efforts to reduce consumer prices in the US. In particular, as Biden recalled, the US administration announced the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the country’s strategic reserve.
The move was coordinated with another 30 countries – members of the International Energy Agency, which agreed to jointly release from their oil reserves a total of 60 million barrels. This decision is designed to eliminate supply disruptions amid the Ukrainian crisis.
Earlier Thursday, the US Department of Labor reported that in February, the consumer price index in the US over the past 12 months reached 7.9%, which was the highest since January 1982. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.8% in February. According to the Ministry of Labor, the prices of gasoline, housing and food products rose the most.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the West is trying to blame the Russian Federation for the increase in energy prices in the world.
As Putin noted, the United States “announced that they are closing the import of Russian oil to the American market, prices there are high, inflation is unprecedentedly high, probably reached historical highs.”
“They are trying to blame the results of their own mistakes on us,” the Russian president believes.
TASS
