Blocking Russian oil, gas imports would mean hara-kiri for Europe: Le Pen

French National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen believes blocking Russia’s imports of oil and gas would mean hara-kiri for Europe, but would do no harm to Russia itself.

"We cannot commit hara-kiri with the hope of hurting Russia," she said during a televised debate with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday evening. Le Pen will face incumbent president in a presidential runoff scheduled for April 24, reports TASS.

Macron’s far-right challenger claimed she opposed imposing an embargo on Russia’s gas and oil supplies as it would do harm to French people. "The only sanctions I disagree with is the blocking of Russian oil and gas imports. Why do I disagree? Because in reality it will do no harm to Russia and will do enormous harm to our people," she explained.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine, stressing that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and a number of other states responded to the actions of the Russian authorities by slapping sanctions against Russian physical and legal entities.

G7 to increase pressure on Russia

G7 countries will sustain and increase their pressure on Russia due to the situation in Ukraine, according to a statement released following a meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Washington on Wednesday.

"We will sustain and increase our coordinated pressure for as long as necessary and continue to urge other countries to support our efforts," the document said.

Heads of G7 finance ministries and central banks also noted that G7 together with partners across the world would continue to take coordinated action responding to the ongoing escalation "to further raise the cost of this war for Russia." "We will also continue to work closely together and with our partners to enforce our sanctions and prevent any attempts to evade, circumvent or backfill sanctions," the statement said.

G7 countries expect the total amount of additional support to Ukraine to exceed $24 bln for 2022 and beyond, according to a statement.

"Building on the G7 Finance Ministersґ statement of 14 February 2022, together with the international community we have provided and pledged considerable additional support exceeding 24 billion US dollars for 2022 and beyond, both in financial and material terms," the document said.

The sanctions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine have been designed in a targeted way to minimize harm for third countries and the global economy, G7 nations said.

"We designed our sanctions in a targeted way to minimize harm for third countries and the global economy and we have excluded key agricultural products and humanitarian necessities from sanctions, ensuring the availability of food stuffs, medicines and medical devices as well as enabling telecommunication services to support the flow of information," the statement said.

G7 countries are committed to not conducting government-to-government financial transactions with Russia and they call upon other states and international institutions to join them, according to a statement released following a meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Washington on Wednesday.

"We are strongly committed to not conducting government-to-government financial transactions with Russia, including voluntary trading in Special Drawing Rights, and call upon other countries to join us in further limiting Russia’s ability to finance its unprovoked and unjustifiable war of choice against Ukraine. Russia must not obtain financing from the international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. We welcome the decision by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to suspend the access by Russia and Belarus to its resources," the statement said.

G7 countries together with partners will continue addressing the economic difficulties related to the situation around Ukraine, according to a statement released following a meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Washington on Wednesday.

"We, together with like-minded partners, remain committed to addressing the economic challenges" due to the situation around Ukraine, the document said. Substantial increases in commodity and food prices, as well as broken supply chains, were mentioned as examples. "We are committed to addressing food insecurity, keeping markets open, and enhancing the resilience of the global economy," the statement said.

G7 also called on international financial institutions "to urgently bolster support for food security and agricultural production and provide support to the most vulnerable countries."

G7 countries have agreed to enhance energy security and secure a stable energy supply, according to a statement released following a meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Washington on Wednesday.

"We will continue to coordinate closely to enhance our energy security and to secure a stable and sustainable energy supply," according to the document published on the website of the German Federal Ministry of Finance.

The participants of the meeting also emphasized that all G7 economies "have undertaken concrete steps to reduce imports of Russian energy supplies.".