Moscow The loopholes in the Western sanctions system against Russia are no longer the main problem facing achieving the goals of these sanctions, but rather the recent development that Western countries have been able, through these loopholes, to obtain Russian energy resources.
RIA Novosti quoted the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (based in Washington) and the Center for the Study of Democracy (based in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria) as confirming that Western countries continue to buy Russian fuel despite the sanctions imposed thanks to a legal loophole.
According to separate reports issued by the two centers, Western markets have practically remained open to Russian energy resources thanks to supplies from 3 Turkish refineries.
The Energy and Clean Air Research Center indicates in its report that Russia received about 3 billion euros thanks to Turkish supplies to the West, and that Ankara recently increased its imports from Russia by 105%, and fuel exports to European countries by 107%.
In addition to the Turkish companies, the report points out that the Azerbaijani-owned Star Ajin Company, which relies 98% on Russian crude oil, and about 73% of which comes from the Russian energy giant Lukoil, which is subject to sanctions, also ships approximately 9% of the Russian crude oil. 10 barrels of these supplies to the west.
Brokers
According to RIA Novosti, India is also a major shipping point for Russian fuel, and has significantly increased its imports of Russian petroleum products, especially to the UK and Germany. The Russian agency confirms that European countries, including the Netherlands, France and Italy, are actively purchasing petroleum products from India.
This comes at a time when the European Union, along with the United States, Britain and other allies, is investigating increasing exports to countries neighboring Russia, in a Western effort to prevent circumvention of the sanctions imposed on Moscow.
In this context, the European Union’s special envoy for sanctions, David O’Sullivan, confirmed in a statement to the British newspaper the Financial Times that there was a “massive decline in trade flows from the European Union to Russia, and an extraordinary increase in trade with other countries, especially those close to Russia.” “.
According to the Western official, “the sudden emergence of a large number of new needs for these goods among Russia’s neighbors may indicate that some of them are leaking into Russia to one degree or another.”
The Western official did not specify which countries the European Union suspects of circumventing sanctions, but the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development indicated that Russia’s imports from Armenia and Kyrgyzstan jumped unexpectedly last year.
Via intermediaries
According to Russian economist Viktor Lashon, although the G7 has long banned almost all oil from Russia, the presence of loopholes in Western “legislation” makes it possible for Russian oil to be purchased by any party, including Western ones, after it has been processed. From other countries such as Turkey or Azerbaijan.
Lashon explains to Al Jazeera Net that, according to the approved rules, mixed fuel “is subject to penalties according to the share of the Russian component.” This is determined by whether the raw material has undergone a “significant transformation” to become an entirely new product.
He adds that in practice, checking the document about where the goods come from (certificate of origin) is sufficient to recognize the fuel as “non-Russian.”
The expert pointed out that this does not mean that all fuel shipments arriving to the European Union from Türkiye are Russian, but not a small portion of them are Russian.
Useful sanctions
In turn, Igor Blinkin, a researcher in macroeconomic issues, points out that Western countries importing Russian fuel through a third country constitutes an attractive source of income for both Western governments and capital owners there.
He added in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that European consumers do not benefit from purchasing “cheap” fuel, while governments, companies, and merchants achieve astronomical profits as a result.
In his speech, he touches on the point related to the logistical capabilities for this, and believes that the geographical location of the ports, in addition to information related to imports and exports, indicates that a large amount of Russian oil is being refilled and transported to more distant regions, which in itself constitutes a loophole in the sanctions laws against Russia. .
He concludes that it does not rule out that this loophole was deliberately kept to benefit from various forms of Russian fuel to achieve profits, especially with the European Union realizing that it has become almost impossible to control all methods that allow circumventing and overcoming sanctions.
In 2014, the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on Russia over its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Since then, the restrictive measures have been tightened several times.
After Russia launched what it called a military operation in Ukraine, the Western system approved more than 10 waves of sanctions that also included many Russian companies, businessmen, and politicians, leaving negative repercussions on the economy, the financial system, and Russian exports, as well as the supply of a number of goods to the country.
