With the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the near total halt to Russian exports, financial markets are under pressure.

At the start of the week, when the Asian markets have just opened, the indicators are either in scarlet red or in dark green.

The barrel of Brent oil from the North Sea thus came close to 140 dollars on Monday morning, close to the absolute record of 147.5 reached in 2008. The prices of black gold then fell again, while continuing to progress at a disheveled: at 5:45 a.m. (Paris time) Brent soared 10.17% to 130.12 dollars.

In the process, the Tokyo and Hong Kong stock markets fell by more than 3% and 4% respectively on Monday in the first exchanges.

On the currency market, the euro is also struggling.

The single currency fell to $1.0879 at 6 a.m. from $1.0928 on Friday.

And gold, a traditional safe haven in times of crisis, has exceeded 2,000 dollars an ounce.

Germany wants sanctions that stick

Tensions are therefore extreme on the oil market, with investors fearing a shortage.

And Antony Blinken's latest statements are not there to reassure.

The head of American diplomacy announced on Sunday that the United States and the European Union are discussing "very actively" the possibility of banning imports of Russian oil.

However, Europeans are not united on this issue.

The German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, thus declared herself opposed to an embargo on Russian gas, oil and coal, believing that the sanctions must be able to "hold over time".

“It is useless if in three weeks we discover that we only have a few days of electricity left in Germany and that we must therefore reverse these sanctions,” she told the ZDF channel.

“We are ready to pay a very, very high economic price” but “if tomorrow, in Germany or in Europe, the lights go out, that won't stop the tanks”.

Kiev angry at Shell

Germany imports from Russia 55% of its gas, 42% of its oil as well as coal, a dependency for which Berlin has been self-critical since the invasion of Ukraine but which will take years to reduce.

But even if Moscow's black gold is not directly sanctioned for the moment in theory, it already finds almost no takers, which is already greatly disrupting the world supply.

The British Shell is one of the only oil groups to have ventured there last week by buying 100,000 tonnes of crude, angering the Ukrainian government.

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