London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The United Kingdom has announced the most extensive package of sanctions against Russia’s shadow oil tanker fleet.
Britain has inflicted sanctions on 18 further Russian oil tankers and four liquefied natural gas vessels, the largest batch of sanctions to date against the country’s so-called “shadow fleet,” the government stated. Britain expresses that the ‘shadow fleet’ uses illegal practices to avoid Western limitations on Russian oil.
How is the UK collaborating with maritime authorities?
The government stated it was working with maritime authorities to insist that Russian vessels with suspected dubious insurance provide elements of their insurance status as they pass through the English Channel. “Any actor that facilitates and supports Russia’s malign activities could be exposing themselves to sanctions,” the government stated.
Russia denies Western pressure to determine its oil exports, and in the past year, there has been an increase in the number of tankers transporting cargo that are not regulated or certified by conventional Western providers. The 18 oil tankers will be banned from UK ports and unable to access British maritime services, bringing the total number of sanctioned Russian oil tankers to 43.
“The UK’s relentless effort against the shadow fleet is putting nerve into the system and starving (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war machine of crucial revenues,” the government stated.
The targeted oil tankers transported an assessed 4.9 billion pounds ($6.37 billion) worth of oil last year, it declared.
What is the reaction of Russian authorities to the sanctions?
The Russian authorities have repeatedly emphasised that unilateral anti-Russian measures by Western countries and their partners are unacceptable and illegal, stating that they were introduced bypassing the UN mechanisms.
The Russian Federation has also repeatedly said that the country will cope with the sanctions pressure that the West started to exert on Russia several years ago and persists in strengthening. Moscow reported that the West does not dare to accept the failure of sanctions against the Russian Federation. There have been arguments in Western countries themselves that anti-Russian sanctions are useless.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously commented that the policy of containing and cutting Russia is a long-term strategy of the West, and sanctions have dealt a severe blow to the entire global economy. According to him, the primary goal of the West is to disturb the lives of millions of people.