Russia earns billions from sanctions exemptions
The EU adopted its 21st sanctions package against Russia in an extraordinary meeting of the ambassadors on 23/7. In that package, they also opened the way for the Greek company Dynagas to continue transporting Russian LNG (liquefied natural gas) from Siberia. In fact, the EU had already sanctioned the transport of LNG to countries outside the EU in its 19th sanctions package from October 2025. Those sanctions were set to take effect from 1/1-2027. But Greece managed to have those sanctions reversed in the summer’s 21st sanctions package.
FTU has previously written that special-built gas transport ships capable of handling about two meters of ice are needed in Siberia and Russia’s Yamal region. These are of the Arc7 type. Seapeak in the UK and Dynagas in Greece own most of these specialized ships. There are only 15 such ships in the world.
Greece argued that the 19th sanctions package was a mistake. They believed that sanctioning the transport of Russian gas to countries outside the EU would give Chinese shipping companies an advantage.
Previously, the EU has sanctioned the sale of cargo ships intended for use in transporting Russian oil. That is why the “shadow fleet” consists of ships in such poor condition. The EU has still not sanctioned the sale of cargo ships intended for use with Russian natural gas or LNG. As a result, Dynagas does not yet have to consider selling the Arc7 ships.
If LNG transport, including the sale of Arc7 ships, had been sanctioned, Russia would not have been able to sell its LNG from Yamal for a long time. It would have had to build new Arc7 ships outside Europe.
The Yamal gas field is operated by Russia’s largest independent gas producer, Novatek. Yamal accounts for 60% of Russia’s total LNG production in 2024, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. Those figures are based on self-reported, state Russian analyses. In the first quarter of 2026, the EU imported 97% of Yamal’s total LNG production. In the first half of 2026, Yamal earned about 7 billion euros from its LNG production. Much of this goes to taxes paid to the Russian state. Yamal’s European customers are therefore helping finance parts of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
“Great Britain, the United States, Norway, and other countries outside the EU must apply more pressure and introduce more sanctions,” says Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy to Sky News, as reported by SVT.
It is not only LNG transport and the sale of LNG ships that have received exemptions in sanctions. SVT writes that there are major exemptions in EU sanctions on steel imports from Russia. Russia will lose 1-2 billion euros if the EU imposes total sanctions on all Russian steel products.
Effective sanctions against Russia could shorten its war of aggression against Ukraine and reduce the need for civilian aid and further suffering for the Ukrainian and European population in the future. Torbjörn Becker, head of the Institute for Transition Economics, told SVT that the EU would quickly benefit economically from imposing strict sanctions against Russia.
Neither the Greek embassy in Norway nor the EU ambassador responded to our inquiries. We also have not received a response from Dynagas.
The journalist for this article was the FTU editorial team. The article was published 3/8/2026 at 18:32.