Greece imports Russian oil despite Athens' assurances that the country does not accept cargoes with Russian markings in accordance with the European Union's ban. This was reported by POLITICO, according to UNN.
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The newspaper writes that a ship loaded with 150,000 barrels of gas oil (a fuel similar to diesel fuel) has set sail from Turkey to the Motor Oil Hellas refinery in southern Greece.
Athens claims that the fuel was Turkish. They insist that they do not accept cargoes with Russian markings in accordance with the EU ban. But new research and reports show that the cargo was most likely exactly that: Russian oil, hidden by the new labeling.
According to research by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), as well as POLITICO, Russian oil appears to be flowing massively to the EU via Turkey.
As the publication notes, this scheme is possible thanks to a workaround in the Brussels sanctions that allows "mixed" fuel to be imported into the EU if it is labeled as non-Russian. According to research, this loophole brought Moscow up to 3 billion euros from just three ports in the 12 months after the EU banned Russian fuel in February 2023.
This workaround illustrates the ways in which Russia circumvents EU sanctions to protect its fossil fuel trade, which accounts for nearly half of the Kremlin's budget and is a vital conduit for its military campaign in Ukraine.
The latest revelations, according to the newspaper, have prompted the EU to act - currently, the EU countries are discussing the 14th package of sanctions against Russia.
It is reported that between February 2023 and February 2024, Turkey increased its purchases from Russia by 105 percent compared to the previous 12 months. During the same period, fuel exports from Turkey to the EU increased by 107 percent.
As POLITICO writes, this does not mean that all fuel cargo coming to the EU from Turkey is Russian. Turkey has refineries capable of processing almost 1 million barrels of oil per day. In addition, Turkish companies are likely to resell some non-Russian fuel to the EU.
But the geographical location of several Turkish ports, combined with import-export data, strongly suggests that significant volumes of Russian fuel were simply repackaged and transferred on, the publication noted.