Sanctions against Russia

An investigation reveals that Lukoil's Burgas refinery continues to process Russian oil, which is being transported by vessels from Russia's shadow fleet. The oil is transshipped in Bulgarian territorial waters, just a few kilometers from the port of Rosenets, which serves the refinery.

A few days ago, the massive tanker Atila, weighing 301,000 tons and flying the flag of Cameroon, was sailing with its GPS signal on, between the coasts of Mauritania and Cape Verde.

Since March, Russia has reportedly supplied North Korea with over a million barrels of oil, according to an analysis conducted by the UK-based research group Open Source Centre in collaboration with the BBC.

The European Union and 12 partner countries have met in Brussels to discuss the effectiveness of Western sanctions on Russia and ways to strengthen the G7 price cap on Russian oil, the EU Commission said on Tuesday.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for the lifting of U.S. sanctions that block his country’s defense supplies and other measures taken “unilaterally” that hinder the ability of NATO allies to achieve long-term bilateral trade goals.

Turkey's effort to get CAATSA sanctions lifted to pave the way for its acquisition of F-35 fighter jets from the United States was confirmed by its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his speech in New York and by his foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, in an interview last week to the state-run Anadolu Agency in which he referred to a quest for a "creative formula" on the issue.

In the first half of 2024, Western allies, including Bulgaria, the European Union and the United States, purchased around 2 billion dollars worth of oil products from Turkey that were refined from Russian crude oil, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) and the Center for Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Traders are moving Russian diesel cargoes to a new ship-to-ship (STS) loadings site in the northern Aegean Sea, as Western sanctions hit vessels carrying fuel loaded in Russian ports, LSEG and market sources data show.

Traders are moving Russian diesel cargoes to a new ship-to-ship (STS) loadings site in the northern Aegean Sea, as Western sanctions hit vessels carrying fuel loaded in Russian ports, LSEG and market sources data show.

Unregulated tankers sidestepping Western sanctions are posing a bigger risk to the Mediterranean region and Greece is undertaking more protective measures to safeguard its coast, the country's shipping minister told Reuters on Tuesday.