LONDON, October 17. /TASS/. The UK government has expanded the sanctions list against Russia again by adding the Rusgazdobycha company, 18 oil tankers and four gas tankers to it, according to a statement by the UK Foreign Office.
"Fresh sanctions unleashed against 18 Russian oil tankers and 4 liquified natural gas tankers," the Foreign Office announced, noting that this is the largest sanctions action to date against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet that transports Russian oil to third countries.
The vessels included in the sanctions list are: Moskovsky Prospekt, Suvorovsky Prospekt, Marshal Vasilevsky, Veliky Novgorod, NS Bora, Atlas, NS Arctic, Callisto, SCF Baikal, SCF Samotlor, Eastern Pearl, Kudos Star, Sea Fidelity, Stratos Aurora, Turbo Voyager, Azure Celeste, Varuna, Sai Baba, Artemis, Antaeus, Mulan and Everest Energy.
"18 more shadow fleet ships will be barred from UK ports and unable to access world-leading British maritime services, bringing the total number of oil tankers sanctioned to 43," the Foreign Office said. Captains and sailing masters may receive instructions to detain the abovementioned ships.
The Foreign Office claims that some of the tankers belong to Sovcomflot. Rusgazdobycha is also mentioned as the owner of the gas carriers subject to sanctions.
As Foreign Secretary David Lammy said, London "is leading the charge" against Russia’s "desperate and dangerous attempts to cling on to its energy revenues." He also reiterated that he sees it as his personal mission to constraint the Kremlin.