Estonia’s Hawkish stance pressured amid talks to cap Russian oil

Estonia is holding a hawkish stance insisting that capping the prices of oil to a level could have no impact on Russia’s war.

Estonia is pressured by other EU member states in order not to go forward with the nation’s threat to veto a US-proposed cap on the price of Russian oil exports that the Baltic country believes is too high to have an impact on the Russian war machine.

The level of the cap on the price of seaborne oil has been the subject of tedious talks and further negotiations among EU member states and G7 members.

Estonia, with a population of only 1.3 million, has, in conjunction with Poland, been holding out against introducing a cap if it is so high that it believes it will have no impact on Russian oil revenues and hence Putin’s war machine. Oil and gas revenues constitute about 30% to 50% of the Russian budget.

EU officials were briefing on Thursday that they expected agreement on a cap set at $60 a barrel. Security experts suggested a cap at that level is ineffective since it is above the price of existing Russian oil prices of around $52 a barrel.

Despite its size, Estonia is in theory in a strong negotiating position because unanimity is required for deciding price cap. The EU is also supposed to introduce an already agreed and more restrictive EU ban on most Russian oil shipments on December 5.