According to the publication, such an increase in the purchase of petroleum products from African countries provided Moscow with a certain economic salvation. Thus, Russia has a stable income stream. However, this raises concerns among the world community about the effectiveness of Western sanctions against the Russian Federation.
“European countries, which before the war accounted for about 60% of Russia’s exports of oil products, have reduced these flows in recent months. The European Union’s ban on the import of Russian oil products, in particular diesel fuel and gasoline, came into force this month, along with measures to limit the price , which Russia earns on sales in other countries,” the article says.
At the same time, earlier sanctions were mostly in effect, but it is the active participation of the North African countries that reduces their effect to a minimum.
So, in 2021, Morocco bought 600,000 barrels from Russia. But in January 2023, it was up to 2 million barrels, and in February, at least 1.2 million barrels are expected into the country. A similar rise is observed in Algeria and Egypt.
But Tunisia in 2021 almost did not buy oil products from Russia. However, the country took 2.8 million barrels of Russian oil products in January 2023 and is expected to import another 3.1 million barrels this month.
It should be noted that the last deliveries of Russian oil products to these countries took place before the last round of trade sanctions came into force.
At the same time, according to the investigation, the dates of delivery to some of these countries coincide with the dates when they sent oil products to European countries.
“Morocco, with no prior record of any significant exports of diesel fuel, sent 280,000 barrels of diesel fuel to Spain’s Canary Islands and another 270,000 barrels to Turkey last month, coinciding with the entry of Russian diesel fuel into Morocco. failed,” writes the WSJ.
