A tanker full of Russian natural gas reached New England this weekend in defiance of U.S. sanctions. It arrived just after the U.S. announced increased penalties on Russia-linked individuals and businesses, and just days before a deadline in which President Trump must decide whether to instruct his administration to impose a new set of sanctions on Russia.
Congress passed a law imposing new sanctions against Russia in August, for their meddling the U.S. presidential election. President Trump reluctantly signed those and on Monday the U.S. Treasury Department is required to begin imposing them. The penalties are against companies doing business with Russia’s defense and intelligence industries. The Treasury Department is also required to make public an eagerly anticipated list of wealthy Russian oligarchs that are in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
It remains to be seen whether, or how fully, the Trump Administration will comply with Congress’ demands.
But the arrival of the tanker just a few miles north of Boston, Mass., this weekend highlights some of the difficulties in enforcing the sanctions, at least the previous ones. Those sanctions were put in place by the Obama administration for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The tanker is French-owned, and the gas shipment itself is owned by a French-energy trader. Energy shipments change hands many times before reaching their port of destinations and the cargoes are often mixed with fuel originating from more than country.
Neither the Treasury Department nor the State Department commented on either the shipment of gas that arrived Friday or the Monday’s looming deadline.