Swiss-based trading house Gunvor on Thursday said it was withdrawing its offer to buy the international assets of Russia’s largest private oil firm after the U.S. said it would “never” approve the deal.
“President [Donald] Trump has been clear that the war must end immediately,” said the U.S. Treasury Department’s official X account. “As long as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit.”
“The Treasury Department statement is fundamentally misinformed and false,” Gunvor’s company spokesperson Seth Pietras, told POLITICO. “In the meantime, Gunvor withdraws its proposal for Lukoil’s international assets.”
The excoriating comments come after Lukoil last week said it had accepted an offer by the multinational trading house to buy its international business after Trump announced sanctions against the energy company. Lukoil said the U.S. Treasury must approve the deal, before it is formally blacklisted on Nov. 21.
