Britain has loosened two separate Russia sanctions restrictions, citing the fuel price crisis triggered by the Iran war and prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The licences — issued by the Department for Business and Trade — took effect on 20 May without prior notice to G7 partners.
The broader of the two is of indefinite duration. It allows the UK to import diesel and jet fuel refined from Russian crude oil in third countries — India and Turkiye are the most significant — reversing a ban that had been in place since January 2026. The narrower licence is time-limited: it permits short-term service contracts with Russia's Sakhalin-2 and Yamal LNG production facilities until January 2027.
The UK's energy security argument is not without logic. The war in Iran and the sustained closure of the Strait of Hormuz have driven fuel prices sharply higher. The US moved first, extending a sanctions waiver on Russian oil cargoes already at sea — for the second time in months. Britain is, in that sense, following rather than leading.
But the EU was not convinced. Speaking at the G7 finance ministers' summit in Paris, EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said bluntly: "From the EU point of view, we do not think that this is the time to ease pressure on Russia. If anything, we need to strengthen that pressure." He also noted that the UK had not raised the issue at the G7 table before the licences were issued — a procedural failure that rankled.
The British government's defence was muted. Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson described the measures as applying to "a time-limited period and on a very specific issue." That framing was not shared by the opposition: Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the Labour government of having "quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries" after 18 months of pledging to stand firm against Moscow.
The G7 meeting ended with a joint communiqué reaffirming the group's "unwavering commitment to continue to impose severe costs on Russia," leaving the door open to further maritime sanctions but setting no timeline.
The UK's energy security logic has merit, and the US precedent provides political cover. But the substance is not the whole story. Issuing sanctions licences without informing G7 partners before a summit specifically convened to coordinate Russia policy is the kind of unilateral move that chips away at coalition cohesion. For Brussels, the concern is less about this particular LNG waiver and more about what it signals: that Western sanctions architecture is starting to fray at the edges, licence by licence, at precisely the moment it needs to hold together.
