US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for the creation of a new cartel of countries to target Russian oil and prevent energy price rises amid the sanctions imposed in response to the war in Ukraine. 

“There would need to be a reasonably large group of countries that would go along with it. And it would be necessary to create such a coalition,” she told the New York Times’s DealBook DC Policy Forum on Thursday.

Ms Yellen highlighted plans by the European Union to “phase out Russian oil purchases,” adding that Britain was likely to “go along with it.”

But she said that more needs to be done to tighten sanctions against Russia, while insisting that they have been “remarkably effective.”

Critics, however, say that Western countries’ sanctions have had minimal impact on Russia but are damaging their own economies, which are being sacrificed in the proxy war in Ukraine. 

Italy and Germany have reported record levels of inflation and expect heavy job losses to come, while Ms Yellen admitted that the US has been hit by “unacceptable” rises in food and gas prices. 

By contrast, Russia’s balance of payments surplus reached $96 billion (£77bn) between January and April, four times the amount for the same period last year. 

It has recorded record profits in oil sales, which have risen by 50 per cent this year, according to Bloomberg.