Moscow’s “grey” funding to circumvent oil sanctions

The objectives of the embargo against Russia were twofold: not to blow up the price of oil and to undermine the Russian state budget. Everything seemed to be proceeding in the desired direction, but new intermediaries appeared on the market

There are sanctions against Russia that have a long-term impact, such as a block on technology transfer, and sanctions that have a short-term impact, such as a partial or total block on trade in non-renewable raw materials. The impact of the latter is considerable, because about half of the Kremlin’s tax revenues come from the latter. At the end of last year it clicked the blocking of Russian oil trade by ship to Europe: involves both sanctioning countries and the rest of the world. For the rest of the world, the blockade consists of a ban on Western companies from insuring ships carrying Russian oil. With the prohibition that comes into effect if oil is traded at prices above sixty dollars a barrel.