Russia will respond to price caps on Russian oil by redirecting supplies to "friendly states," its energy minister Nikolai Shulginov told reporters at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday.

"Further to the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East is promising for us. However, we are also considering other destinations, for example, Africa," Shulginov told Russian news agency TASS.

Efforts are underway despite the "rather long" process of redirecting supplies, Shulginov said.

Finance ministers of the U.S., Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, France and Canada gave a green light last week to the idea of capping the price of Russian crude as part of sanctions.

But Shulginov said price caps would lead to supply issues and price volatility.

"Any actions to impose a price cap will lead to deficit on [initiating countries'] own markets and will increase price volatility," he told reporters.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak had said that Russia would stop supplying oil to countries that impose price caps.

Before the Russian-Ukraine conflict began in February, around half of Russia's crude and petroleum product exports went to Europe, data from the International Energy Agency showed.

(With input from Reuters)