Just before he visited Washington last week, Foreign Min. Jan Lipavský told CNN that if China started helping Russia in any significant way, it would have severe consequences for the EU-China relationship. Lipavský was thinking ahead and was apparently hinting at secondary sanctions, which can be imposed against countries that seek to undermine sanctions or that provide support for Russia's war effort. A phased-in embargo by the EU on Russian oil by the end of this year, which the CR supports, would flood the market with easily transportable Russian petroleum. A new informal bloc of countries willing to buy it could form, potentially adding many more non-Western governments to a list of countries that could become subject to secondary EU or US sanctions. China and India are already buying Russian oil and would presumably keep doing so. Lipavský is apparently prepared to get into a trade war with them. An embargo on Russian oil could have severe secondary consequences.