The UK has put 30 more vessels on a black list, allowing the Russian Federation to export oil by evading sanctions, so 73 vessels of the shadow fleet are sanctioned. This is the largest number of sanctions imposed by London on cargo ships and tankers the Russian Federation uses to bypass the oil embargo and other restrictions on export products to fund a war against Ukraine.
The UK has included the Russian vessels Viktor Bakaev, Krasnoyarsk, Kolomna, Kemerovo, Georgy Maslov, Bratsk, Belgorod, Antarktika, Anatoly Kolodkin in the black list. Moreover, the UK has sanctioned vessels under the flags of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gabon, and Panama. The UK will ban these vessels from its ports, suspending their registration. Moreover, captains may be ordered to detain their tankers. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom has asserted that half of the sanctioned vessels were responsible for transporting Russian petroleum and oil goods worth more than $4.3 billion in 2023.
Furthermore, two insurance companies of the Russian Federation have been sanctioned by the UK. The list of sanctions includes VSK and AlfaStrakhovanie accused of assisting the shadow fleet, transporting goods without sufficient insurance.
The restrictions imposed by the UK have turned out to be effective because the Russian Federation depends on Iran and North Korea for the supply of materiel. For example, the oil tankers called Sea Fidelity and Artemis under the flags of Honduras and Gabon stopped in the Baltic Sea after the imposition of sanctions on them last month.
The UK sanctions on the Russian vessels turn out to be more extensive than similar restrictions imposed by the US and the EU. The US black list includes 39 sanctioned tankers, while the European one consists of 19 vessels. Since the Russian vessels are engaged in activities aimed at boosting capabilities of the Kremlin to continue waging a war against Ukraine and threaten the sovereignty of a lot of European countries, the USA and the EU should follow the path taken by the UK and impose sanctions on more Russian tankers.
