FX.co ★ Russia uses loopholes to avoid sanctions

The recent packages of joint anti-Russian sanctions met a lot of controversy among EU countries. The bloc consolidates many countries each having its own views and issues. Meanwhile, some nations cannot fully refrain from Russian energy. This fact became the reason why the latest package of joint sanctions included loopholes for Russian oil imports. Currently, the EU has almost nothing to ban. The rest of the possible restrictions are exceedingly expensive to impose and maintain. Due to this reason, the countries find it difficult to have common ground on the issues. Notably, Hungary refused to adopt a complete oil embargo four weeks ago. At the same time, Germany raised this concern only after a tangible reduction in oil imports from Russia. As a result, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech will continue to receive Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline while Germany and Poland are cut from supplies. The anti-Russian restrictions are not supposed to come into force until 2023, which means that Russia will continue to benefit from exports until then. Besides, soaring energy prices are likely to cover Russia’s losses from the embargo, and Moscow uses this time to find new buyers.