The US president, who was under intense political pressure to make the decision, shuffled his agenda: he is due to speak at 15:45 GMT to "announce actions aimed at sanctioning Russia for its unjustified and unprovoked war" against Ukraine , the White House said.

This will be, according to several American media, to announce a ban on imports of Russian hydrocarbons.

The White House had already, in recent days, prepared minds for a unilateral announcement, marking for the first time a divergence between Westerners on the sanctions to be imposed on Russia.

“I would look at this in a different light than past coordinated efforts” on sanctions, US executive spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday, emphasizing “the very different circumstances” for Americans and Europeans in in terms of Russian hydrocarbons - the former don't matter much, while the latter are, for certain countries, very dependent on it.

The political circumstances are also very different: American parliamentarians had begun to prepare a bill supported by the Democrat majority and the Republican opposition -- a rarity in a context of extreme political division in the United States -- to ban Russian oil and gas imports.

Brent is on the rise

Joe Biden has therefore decided to grill their politeness, perhaps wishing to fuel the small burst of popularity given to him by his management of the war in Ukraine in the polls.

Russian supplies represent 40% of Europe's natural gas needs, and around 30% of its oil needs.

On the other hand, only 8% of American imports of crude oil and petroleum products came from Russia in 2021. In addition, the United States does not import Russian gas.

"It's the right decision to make," said Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz on CNBC.

"The next step is to work with Europe to do the same thing, wean itself off Russian oil and gas."

“We are going to see an increase in fuel prices here in the United States,” warned CNN, Democratic Senator from Delaware Chris Coons, and “in Europe, they are going to see dramatic increases. defense of freedom and support for the Ukrainian people".

The prospect of an American embargo also immediately caused prices to soar: Brent, the benchmark for crude oil in Europe, climbed more than 5% on Tuesday, approaching 130 dollars a barrel around 2:30 p.m. GMT.

© 2022 AFP