The British government yesterday quietly issued two sweeping import licences for Russian oil and gas. This may ease European supply problems but makes a mockery of Sir Keir Starmer’s claims to be getting tough on Vladimir Putin.
The first of the licences, released late last night with minimal fanfare, grants an indefinite general trade licence allowing imports of diesel and jet fuel refined from Russian crude in third countries. This means that fuel processed in India or Turkey from Russian oil can now legally enter the UK market. The second is a time-limited licence covering maritime transportation services, financing and brokering for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Sakhalin-2 and Yamal projects, two of the Kremlin’s largest and most lucrative gas export terminals.
In February, Starmer told the Munich Security Conference that ‘Russia has proved its appetite for aggression’ and that ‘this time it must be different – we must build our hard power’. At a Coalition of the Willing conference in Paris, he promised to ‘keep up the pressure on Russia, including further measures on the oil traders and shadow fleet operators funding Putin’s war chest.’ And just eight weeks ago, Defence Secretary John Healey told BBC Radio 4 that authorising the Royal Navy to seize Russian shadow fleet tankers was ‘a signal to Putin that he may want us to be distracted by the Middle East but we’re ready to act’.
