"President Putin has already said he will never sell Russian oil at the price cap level and that he will halt oil exports to countries implementing the cap, and could also cut production in retaliation, thus creating shortages in the market and hiking prices far above the price cap," Salameh said.
This will, in turn, force Western countries to pay more for their crude oil imports, thus feeding inflation and deepening recession, according to the economist.
Salameh also disagreed with Zoltan Pozsar, an investment strategist at Credit Suisse financial services company, who voiced fears last week that Moscow could create an oil-for-gold payment mechanism in response to the price cap.
"Russia neither needs such a mechanism, nor is it practicable or likely. Russia will only accept rubles for any sale of its oil exports to unfriendly countries, while accepting other hard currencies from friendly countries. There is also the probability that it will accept China's petro-yuan and India's rupee for their oil imports," the expert said.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, commenting on the West's decision to introduce the price cap, said that Moscow would not accept it. Russia is ready to work only with those consumers who comply with market conditions, Novak added.
The European Union placed a price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian crude oil on December 5. The G7 nations and Australia have also capped Russian oil exports at $60 per barrel. On Monday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign a decree on retaliatory measures to the price cap in the coming days.