European Commission proposes to ban selling oil tankers to Russia - Reuters

The aim is to prevent Russia from circumventing Western sanctions on Russian oil through a shadow fleet of vessels.

"The proposal, discussed on Friday by ambassadors of EU governments, also says that sales of tankers to a third country should include contractual clauses that ships cannot be re-sold to Russia or used to carry Russian crude oil or petroleum products that avoid Western price caps," the article states.

What exactly is proposed

European Commission believes that the price cap mechanism relies on an attestation process that enables operators in the supply chain of sea-borne Russian oil to demonstrate that it has been purchased at or below the price cap.

"To further support the implementation of, and compliance with, this mechanism while increasing barriers to falsification of attestations, (the proposal) introduces a requirement for attestations to also include itemized ancillary costs, such as insurance and freight," the article says.

Sanctions against Russia's oil

Sanctions against Russia's oil sector were strengthened by the United States yesterday. Legal entities and tankers fell under restrictions.

Later, Reuters reported that three oil tankers, sanctioned by Washington, had regularly delivered Russian oil Sokol to India in recent months.

Bloomberg reports that Western sanctions on Russian oil exports cannot deprive the Kremlin of income to finance the war in Ukraine. It means that these measures do not achieve one of their main goals.