Russia Pushes for Sanctions Relief as Shadow Fleet Comes Under Fire

Russia is lobbying hard for the U.S. to lift sanctions on Kremlin-linked oligarchs and energy exports, according to Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine’s commissioner for sanctions, who spoke to the media on Friday. During recent U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, Moscow made it clear these two issues are top priorities. The oligarch sanctions, imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion, have hit key players hard, while energy restrictions cut into critical revenue streams.

Despite these efforts, Washington is maintaining pressure on Russia’s oil trade. The U.S., EU, and U.K. continue targeting the Kremlin’s “shadow fleet”—a network of aging tankers used to circumvent sanctions and price caps. Kyiv is also cracking down, sanctioning Russian and Iranian nationals involved in illicit ship-to-ship transfers.

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While the Biden administration recently shut down its Kremlin-linked oligarch task force, which had seized $700 million in assets, it remains committed to restricting Russia’s war machine. However, Washington appears less enthusiastic about broad new financial sanctions, instead focusing on enforcement measures to tighten existing restrictions.

Meanwhile, Moscow is still finding ways to evade sanctions, using shell companies and allied nations like China, Iran, and North Korea to procure critical Western-made components for its military drones and missiles.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told European leaders in a call after the meeting in Riyadh that the U.S. would not lift any sanctions on Russia unless Moscow noticeably changed its behavior. The U.S. did, however, leave the door open to relaxing some of the sanctions in limited ways if the Russians took steps that the US administration was seeking.

The Biden Administration imposed harsh sanctions in its final days in office that targeted dozens of vessels that Russia uses to ship ESPO crude oil to independent refiners in China.

By Julianne Geiger for Oiprice.com

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