Sanctions have resulted in London no longer getting gas and oil directly from Russia
However, according to The Spectator, there is reason to believe that Russian energy resources are still coming to Britain by roundabout routes. This suggests that neither Britain nor Western countries can collectively isolate Russia.
Rising energy prices give an indication of the cost to Britons of the sanctions imposed on Russia. According to trade figures published by the Office for National Statistics, the UK has achieved one of its main goals: to overcome its dependence on Russian energy. However, this does not mean the country is immune from the gas supply problems faced by Germany and other European countries.
As the author continues, although London imports more LNG from the US and Qatar and, indeed, has been re-exporting some to continental Europe in recent months, it remains at the end of a European pipeline with Russia supplying the blue fuel at the eastern end. And, when winter arrives, the shortage of Russian gas will affect British supplies.
The author of the article notes that one of the sensations of the published statistics should be the fact that instead of importing oil from Russia, the UK has increased its purchases from Belgium. But Belgium has no oil resources; it only has refineries that receive crude oil imported from other countries. Although this does not mean that the refined oil the UK buys from Belgium is in any case Russian, it is impossible to understand the true origin of the goods from the export and import figures given, as they only indicate the country from which they came to the UK.
As the author of the article concludes, the Russian economy may have been seriously affected by Western sanctions. However, it is fair to assume that they are not as perfect as they try to convince and that there is a definite leakage of Russian exports to the West.
“Neither the UK nor Western countries can collectively isolate Russia. While Moscow exports less oil and gas to the West, it has increased its supplies to India and China. Can we be sure that some of this energy will not find its way back to the UK? – asks the author of The Spectator.
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