Western sanctions have enough loopholes to let Russia continue oil exports, receiving money for the continuous war it wages in Ukraine, Global Witness reports.
For example, carveouts in the UK and US rules allow companies to import CPC Blend, crude oil that is a mixture of Kazakh and Russian products, transported via the Caspian pipeline. Or refined oil - once the oil has been refined into other products such as gasoline, it can be freely traded, even if it came from Russia.
There are also U.K. rules that allow British firms to help traders obscure the origin of Russian oil, with vast amounts of it being transferred from tanker to tanker before being shipped to refineries worldwide.
All of these allow Russia to continue to gain revenue from the oil trade, undermining democratic countries’ efforts to cripple the Russian economy. If nothing is done about it, then the oil ban in its’ present form can be seen as a failure to stop war sponsorship.