The United States on Thursday temporarily eased economic sanctions on Russia to allow Russian oil currently stranded at sea to be sold to India.
The US Department of the Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a Russia-related licence authorising the delivery and sale of crude oil and petroleum products of Russian origin that had already been loaded onto vessels as of March 5, 2026.
In a statement, the Treasury said the licence permits transactions including those involving vessels blocked under various sanctions regimes until the end of April 3, 2026.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the waiver was intended “to enable oil to keep flowing into the global market.”
“This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government as it only authorises transactions involving oil already stranded at sea,” Bessent wrote on X.
He added that allowing the sale of the oil to India would help “alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage,” even though India has said it plans to stop buying Russian oil as part of a trade agreement with the United States.
In November, US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Russian oil giants Lukoil and Rosneft in a rare move to increase pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The measures among Trump’s most significant actions against Russia over the Ukraine war, forced major buyers of Russian crude to seek alternative suppliers.
According to reports, Russia has since assembled a fleet of ageing oil tankers with opaque ownership structures to circumvent sanctions imposed by European Union, the Group of Seven (G7) and Washington following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
AFP
