/ world today news/ Not only oil, gas, coal, but also gold are under the strict sanctions of the USA and the EU. Switzerland also supported the embargo – local companies were banned from buying the precious metal. But, as it turned out, tens of millions of dollars worth of bullion were bought there – due to a carefully left loophole in the legislation. There are other loopholes that allow the West to trade with Moscow as if nothing happened.
They gave up their principles
The EU Council imposed an embargo on gold back in April last year. “We are effectively banning Russia’s most important export after energy,” said Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy.
It was about the purchase, import or transfer – directly or indirectly – of gold of Russian origin, as well as jewelry. Switzerland joined the sanctions in August.
This surprised the international community. Historically, Geneva has been neutral in any conflict and has built a system of regulation that protects the secrecy of the banking and commodity sectors.
“legally independent”
However, the Swiss companies ignored the ban.
Open Mineral, listed in Abu Dhabi a year ago and wholly owned by its Zug-based parent company of the same name, brought six shipments worth $44 million to the UAE from August to January, according to the Financial Times
Such transactions, as it turned out, are quite legal due to loopholes in the legislation.
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs explained: “Sanction requirements do not apply to legally independent subsidiaries abroad.”
“Open Mineral’s UAE deal is further evidence that traders have schemes to trade Russian oil and gold,” notes the Financial Times.
Only on paper
Swiss oil trader Paramount Energy, which owns a Dubai-based subsidiary of the same name, continues to sell Russian crude from the eastern port of Kozmino.
Moreover, at a price higher than the ceiling set by G-7. The justifications are the same: “legal independence”.
As the Swiss NGO Public Eye points out, in both cases it would be wise to examine the relationship between the organizations. Because “it is quite obvious that the legal separation exists only on paper and all decisions are, of course, made in Geneva.”
“Everything is clean”
According to the customs administration, in May 2022, about three tons of gold worth $200 million were imported into Switzerland. The precious metal came from Great Britain (which immediately joined the embargo), and the documents contained information about its Russian origin.
Oil schemes were also tried in London. From January to July 2022, raw materials from Russia for 275 million dollars were delivered to Britain. Ships came from Holland, Germany, Belgium, Poland. Formally, the laws are not broken, as the importer is considered the sending country, not the manufacturer.
British MPs were outraged and demanded that the loophole be closed. But things did not go further than that – the “sanctioned” purchases were set in motion.
In early 2023, London was caught by a sharp increase in supplies from the world’s largest oil refinery, Jamnagar, on India’s west coast. The raw materials there are Russian.
They replaced direct imports with indirect ones and continue to support Russian industry, the newspaper “Telegraf” was outraged.
In fact, all of Europe has been buying the “forbidden” oil through the “laundering” countries for more than a year now. There are at least five such China, India, Turkey, UAE and Singapore.
Exports of crude oil from Russia to them increased by 140% in volume terms. The amount for the year is a record 74.8 billion euros, 70% of the total.
And from there the black gold spreads to the EU. According to Kepler’s estimates, Europeans bought “laundered” sanctioned oil from third countries for 42 billion euros.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel or in Telegram:
#breaking #Europe #clever #Russia
