So if the goal is “curbing Putin’s ability to fund his war machine”, why didn’t US and UK officials sanction Russian oil and gas?  The answer is hinted at in this section of this [April 14, 2024] Bloomberg article: The restrictions were crafted to avoid the kind of market disruptions that resulted from the sanctioning of Oleg Deripaska in 2018, which caused aluminum prices to spike and triggered widespread concern among consumers of the metal,

There were always ample warnings, there always subtle signs, and you would have seen it coming but we gave you too much time.     – Guns ‘N’ Roses, “Coma” Key points: