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Nearly 300 entities linked to Russian energy and military production have been added to the UK’s sanctions lists, including a network of oil traders whose vast reach was identified by the FT as the result of an IT blunder.
More than half of the listings relate to the “2Rivers Network” of entities, which the Foreign Office described as a “dark web of illicit oil traders”.
This group of entities has been linked to Tahir Garayev, an Azeri businessman with close links to Rosneft, the Russian state oil company. This network was described by the UK government as “one of the largest shadow fleet operators globally and a major trader of Russian crude oil”.
Yvette Cooper, foreign secretary, said: “The UK has today taken decisive action to disrupt the critical financing, military equipment and revenue streams that sustain Russia’s aggression, in our largest raft of measures since the early months of the invasion.”
The FT was able to identify entities in the network because their web domain registrations revealed that they were all sharing an email server.
By comparing the names of entities using the server to names appearing in Russian and Indian customs filings, the FT was able to identify $90bn of Russian oil shipments related to 48 companies.
The network complicates the task of tracing the origin of oil shipments. The network used one group of companies to buy oil in Russia and another to sell it into its export markets.
By making it difficult to match transactions together, the network can enable entities to disguise their involvement. It can also allow Russian exporters to hide the true prices of purchases and to disguise cargoes sold in breach of the price cap imposed on Russian oil exports.
Further sanctions in the package also expand the restrictions on Transneft, the Russian state-owned pipeline operator, as well as nine entities in the LNG sector and 48 tankers in the so-called ghost fleet.
In addition to targeting the energy sector, the UK also focused on two other strategic chokepoints: international payments processing and technology transfer.
The listing includes a further nine Russian banks “which process cross-border payments”. Correspondent banking services have been a major focus of recent policy, forcing Russia to build alternative systems so that it can continue to do business with key partners, particularly in China.
The UK also added 49 “entities and individuals involved in sustaining Russia’s war machine”. These include Chinese suppliers, such as Shenzhen Sowin Precision Machine Tools, which was listed for “making available economic resources, goods or technology” to the Russian war effort.
Cooper, speaking in Kyiv, said: “We will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine and defend European security — Ukraine’s security is our security.”
Garayev has denied any involvement in the network. He did not respond to a request for comment.