G7 promised to prevent russia's evasion of oil sanctions

The G7 finance ministers promised to step up efforts to prevent russia from evading sanctions imposed after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We are talking about oil restrictions.

“We remain committed to taking further initiatives in response to violations of oil price restrictions,” the joint statement after the meeting in Washington said.

In December 2022, the G7 countries, the EU, and Australia agreed to put pressure on buyers of russian oil to stay within a certain price ceiling.

The agreement was intended to limit russia's sales and revenues from oil sold by the aggressor country, but not to restrict exports so sharply that it would not lead to a sharp rise in world oil prices.

However, some countries, such as China, continue to import russian crude oil without complying with the price ceiling.

After the meeting in Washington, the G7 finance ministers also announced that they would take additional measures to increase "the cost to russia of using its shadow fleet to circumvent sanctions."

Officials claim that russia has been using its fleet of shadow tankers, many of which are old, unmarked and poorly maintained, to circumvent sanctions by transporting oil without properly declaring cargo or routes.

In addition, tankers sometimes load or reload cargo at sea to avoid unwanted attention.

The US and EU have imposed sanctions on several of these vessels and their owners, including the russian state-owned shipping company Sovcomflot.

In addition, the G7 ministers stated that they intend to “intensify efforts to prevent financial institutions from supporting russia's evasion of our sanctions.”

According to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, russian financial institutions have created a network of foreign subsidiaries to facilitate the purchase or sale of sanctioned goods.

At the meeting, the G7 ministers were joined by central bankers from seven countries, as well as senior officials from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Source: The Guardian