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Reuters: Russia facing delays in oil payments from China, Turkey and UAE

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Reuters: Russia facing delays in oil payments from China, Turkey and UAE
A view from the oil company Tatneft in Tatarstan, Russia on June 4, 2023. (Alexander Manzyuk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Banks in China, the UAE, and Turkey have boosted sanctions compliance leading to Russian oil firms facing months of delays in receiving payments, Reuters reported on March 27.

In some cases, money transfers to Moscow have been rejected entirely, several sources familiar with the matter told the outlet.

The U.S. in December introduced secondary sanctions to target foreign financial institutions that support Russia’s war effort, even if they do so unknowingly.

As a result, banks have begun demanding written guarantees from clients ensuring that payments will not benefit any person or entity named on Washington's Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) List.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the payment problems when questioned by Reuters during a press conference call.

“Of course, unprecedented pressure from the U.S. and the EU on the People's Republic of China continues,” he said.

After the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries imposed a $60-per-barrel price cap.

In addition to the imposition of the price cap, the U.S. and its allies applied a number of other measures in an attempt to force compliance, such as "cutting off access to Western services like shipping and insurance unless traders abided by the $60 limit."

Russia managed to ship out much of its crude above $60 by using a "ghost fleet" of mostly uninsured tankers, with the Financial Times reporting on Nov. 14 that the vast majority of Russian oil had been selling above the price cap.

The U.S. in December imposed secondary sanctions to try and curb Russian crude oil sales.

Sanctions for show: Russian oil sales to China, India single main driver of Ukraine invasion
As Western sanctions designed to cripple Russian energy exports barely slow them down, the Kremlin continues to make enough money to keep its war against Ukraine going indefinitely, just by selling oil to China and India. After pivoting away from Europe, Moscow found enthusiastic buyers in Beijing…
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Chris York

News Operations Editor

Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.

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