United Kingdom has become the first country to apply sanctions to the ten largest oil producers in Russia, after announcing this Thursday restrictions on the only company that was still outside of its list, Slavneft.
With this decision, the oil company joins the group of major Russian energy firms already punished by London, including Transneft, Rosneft and Lukoil, as part of a new round of British sanctions that acts as a prelude to the meeting of the European Political Community that starts this Thursday in Dublin (Ireland).
During the event in the Irish capital, the British prime minister, Andy Burham, will use this new package of measures as an example to ask the other participants to "continue exerting pressure" on the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, so that "he takes the peace negotiations on Ukraine seriously".
The British Government has also added additional sanctions against vessels of the so-called Russian shadow fleet involved in the transport of crude oil and liquefied natural gas coming from Russia, as well as against Rosneft’s flagship oil and gas project in the Arctic: LLC Vostok Oil.
With this package, the United Kingdom targets “practically all the links in the chain of energy income in the oil and gas sectors, including producers, commercial networks, supply chains and vessels, to further limit Russia’s ability to generate income and finance its illegal war,” the communiqué from the office of the British prime minister states.