What a perfect euphemism. Supremely encapsulates the current situation.
Im shocked! Did anyone really expect otherwise?
It’s not even difficult to avoid sanctions, you don’t even have to blend anything. Just sell your own supply, then import the same amount of Russia. That’s totally not selling Russian resources!
Those damn Russians always find a way to sell their natural resources. If only there was a way to not buy them.
One of the routes Russian oil was getting into Europe is via Indian oil refineries, who were processing Russian Ural and then selling it for a good margin as they were able to get it for cheap from Russia (even cheaper after the EU €80 price cap), so all the routes mentioned in this article are also functional at present it seems.
It works as designed. Unfortunately, world oil market is still dependeant on Russian supply, without it, the price would shoot up. So Russia selling the oil is desirable, it just has to stay under the price cap.
Middlemen earning arbitrage money is fine as well, the only question which remains is how much are the middlemen paying Russia / whether there isn’t some back channel routing part of the profits back to Russia.
By the way, this is intentional. It starves Russia of profits while allowing Europe to still get the oil.
6 comments
What a perfect euphemism. Supremely encapsulates the current situation.
Im shocked! Did anyone really expect otherwise?
It’s not even difficult to avoid sanctions, you don’t even have to blend anything. Just sell your own supply, then import the same amount of Russia. That’s totally not selling Russian resources!
Those damn Russians always find a way to sell their natural resources. If only there was a way to not buy them.
One of the routes Russian oil was getting into Europe is via Indian oil refineries, who were processing Russian Ural and then selling it for a good margin as they were able to get it for cheap from Russia (even cheaper after the EU €80 price cap), so all the routes mentioned in this article are also functional at present it seems.
It works as designed. Unfortunately, world oil market is still dependeant on Russian supply, without it, the price would shoot up. So Russia selling the oil is desirable, it just has to stay under the price cap.
Middlemen earning arbitrage money is fine as well, the only question which remains is how much are the middlemen paying Russia / whether there isn’t some back channel routing part of the profits back to Russia.
By the way, this is intentional. It starves Russia of profits while allowing Europe to still get the oil.