Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 18, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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UK sanctions Russian oil firms and billionaire Lakhani to pressure Moscow over Ukraine. EU also targets Russia's shadow fleet.
By Muvija M
LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Britain imposed sanctions on Thursday on more Russian oil companies and Canadian-Pakistani billionaire Murtaza Lakhani as part of efforts to ramp up pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
The government targeted 24 individuals and entities, including what it described as Russia's largest remaining unsanctioned oil companies: Tatneft, Russneft, NNK-Oil and Rusneftegaz.
The latest measures aim to make it harder for Russia to trade its oil globally. In October, Britain and the U.S. sanctioned Russia's two biggest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft.
Earlier on Thursday, the EU imposed sanctions on 41 more ships in Russia's so-called shadow fleet that seeks to circumvent Western trading restrictions.
Russia has previously dismissed Western sanctions as politically motivated.
Thursday's package also included Lakhani, who was sanctioned by the European Union earlier this week, and his companies, which the British government said had become some of the largest traders of Russian oil since 2022.
Lakhani, 63, began his career at global trader Glencore and runs mid-sized trading firm Mercantile & Maritime, which now faces UK sanctions. The company has offices in Singapore and London.
Britain also said it was using sanctions to clamp down on Central Asian supply chains of cotton pulp, a key component in ammunition, explosives and missile fuel that it said Russia cannot produce at scale.
(Reporting by Muvija M. Additional reporting by Anna Hirtenstein. Editing by William James and Mark Potter)
The energy sector encompasses industries involved in the production and distribution of energy, including oil, gas, coal, and renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
An oil company is a business entity engaged in the exploration, extraction, refining, and distribution of oil and gas products.
Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security and operates on decentralized networks based on blockchain technology.
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