G7 to hike sanctions on Russia, nears oil price cap deal

The price cap could hit Russian President Vladimir Putin's war chest while actually lowering energy prices

The Group of Seven rich democracies will commit on Tuesday to a new package of coordinated actions meant to raise pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine, and will finalise plans for a price cap on Russian oil, a senior U.S. official said on Monday, Qazet.az reports.

The announcement came as the White House said Russia had defaulted on its foreign sovereign bonds for the first time in decades - an assertion Moscow rejected - and as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke virtually with G7 leaders meeting at an alpine resort in southern Germany.

Zelenskiy asked leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies for a broad range of military, economic and diplomatic support, according to a European official.

G7 nations, which generate nearly half the world's economic output, want to crank up pressure on Russia without stoking already soaring inflation that is causing strains at home and savaging the global south.

The price cap could hit Russian President Vladimir Putin's war chest while actually lowering energy prices.