Britain imposes new sanctions against the russian navy

The United Kingdom has taken new steps to combat the shadowy russian fleet that exports oil and finances Moscow's military machine. The British Foreign Office has announced sanctions against 10 vessels that are considered central to this operation.

The Guardian writes that russia has a large fleet of often unusable and outdated tankers that transport russian gas and oil products around the world. Oil exports are Vladimir Putin's most important source of revenue to finance the war in Ukraine, accounting for about a quarter of the russian budget in 2023.

“Putin's war machine is funded by a dark and illegal economic system that this government is committed to destabilizing. Today's sanctions further undermine russia's ability to trade oil through its shadowy fleet. Together with our partners, we will continue to send a strong message to russia that the international community stands with Ukraine and will not tolerate this illegal fleet," said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

According to him, russia was forced to spend more than $8 billion to create a shadow fleet.

“As the sanctioned tankers stand idle and unable to load oil, we intend to make Putin's investment a costly mistake for the Kremlin. Our actions will help to counter russia's attempts to undermine and evade economic sanctions," the British Foreign Secretary said.

The sanctioned vessels will be banned from entering UK ports and will be denied access to the British ship registry.

In total, the three vessels - Nikolai Zuev, NS Asia and Zaliv Aniva - have transported more than $5 billion worth of russian oil since russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. The large and newly created shadow fleet has become the biggest loophole in Western attempts to prevent russia from continuing to finance its war through oil exports.

The UK argues that previous sanctions against individual shadow vessels have led to significant disruption in their operations, and the vast majority of them are idle outside ports, unable to continue trading in russian oil.

Currently, 25 shadow fleet vessels are under sanctions. So far, sanctions have deprived russia of assets and revenues worth more than $400 billion since February 2022. This is equivalent to four more years of funding for the invasion.

Source: The Guardian