The United States removed three vessels under the Russian flag from the sanctions list. Before this, they had only eased sanctions related to Russia’s oil.
Details
The U.S. Department of the Treasury removed three vessels under the Russian flag from the sanctions list. These vessels are Fesco Moneron, Fesco Magadan, and Sv Nikolay. The information appeared on the agency’s website in a decision by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The document states lifting of restrictions on the vessels. The US also removed them from the SDN list (Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List). This is the main U.S. sanctions list, which includes thousands of individuals and legal entities, terrorists, and drug traffickers whose assets are frozen and with whom interaction is prohibited. OFAC maintains it, and the list is publicly available.
The vessels that had sanctions lifted are the container ships Fesco Moneron and Fesco Magadan. They fell under U.S. restrictions in February 2022. The reason is their connection with the company PSB Leasing, which is under sanctions. The vessel Sv Nikolay is a general-purpose ship. It has been under U.S. sanctions since April 2022 due to its connection with Alfa-Leasing, which is also under sanctions.
At the time of publication of the decision, Fesco Moneron was in the Sea of Okhotsk, Fesco Magadan was in the Sea of Japan, and Sv Nikolay was in the Sea of Azov. The data comes from the vessel tracking service MarineTraffic.
Context
Before this decision, the easing of U.S. sanctions concerned only the oil sector. On March 6, Indian refineries received official permission to purchase Russian oil that was on tankers at sea. This approach became a temporary way to stabilize the global oil market amid the energy crisis. Due to disruptions in oil supplies, there was a risk of a shortage on the global market.
On March 10, information appeared that Donald Trump is considering an option to partially ease U.S. sanctions related to Russian oil. On March 13, the U.S. Department of the Treasury allowed the export of oil and petroleum products that had already been loaded onto vessels for 30 days.
Earlier, The Ukrainian Review reported that Russian oil companies informed buyers about a possible declaration of force majeure regarding supplies from Baltic Sea ports. The reason is Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure.
