The British Foreign Office just made a big-time move against Russias hidden oil business‚ putting the squeeze on thirty sea-going vessels (that were doing some pretty shady stuff with petroleum products)
The new-found targets are part of a not-so-legal fleet thats been moving oil around – these ships dont follow the rules and often look like theyʼre falling apart. Its the largest group of ships hit by UK sanctions at once: these vessels were sneaking billions worth of oil past international trade limits.
The UKs got quite the track record here – theyʼve now black-listed 73 tankers total which puts them at the top of the list for countries fighting this kind of thing. The whole point is simple really: cut off the cash-flow thatʼs helping fund Moscows military actions in Ukraine.
The shadow-fleet (as people call it) uses run-down ships to move Russian oil products around the world while trying to stay off the radar. These old-school tankers – many of which should probably be in the scrap-yard – are breaking all sorts of maritime rules to keep the oil flowing