Loophole allows Brits to import Russian oil despite sanctions
According to a report in the British newspaper The Sunday Times, Great Britain can continue to import Russian oil despite sanctions imposed on it. The British companies can therefore easily circumvent the country’s punitive measures against Moscow using a loophole. | The UK has received at least 39 shipments of Russian oil since February, despite the shipments being registered as imports from other countries. This is according to a report by the British newspaper The Sunday Times, which relies on tanker traffic data and trade statistics. ● The Russian-origin oil shipments, worth around £200 million (around US$236 million), arrived in UK ports after ship-to-ship transhipments, the report said. This is therefore a widespread practice in which large tankers, which cannot dock due to their size, transfer their cargo to smaller ships. ● According to the Sunday Times, this practice gives shipping companies the opportunity to register their cargo without declaring the actual origin of the shipment. Instead, the country of loading is named as the place of origin of the delivery. In this way, for example, a consignment of goods manufactured in Russia can be registered as originating in Germany if it is transported by a German company to a British port.