Britain has quietly done something it swore it wouldn’t: opened the door, just a crack, to Russian oil again. The government confirmed this week that a temporary sanctions waiver has been granted on certain Russian fuel imports, citing mounting supply pressures linked to the effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
The decision won’t win any popularity contests. It comes just as the UK was congratulating itself on having largely weaned off Russian energy following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But with Hormuz tensions throttling flows of Middle Eastern crude, ministers appear to have decided that principles are one thing, and petrol prices are another.
Fuel costs at the forecourt have already crept upward in recent weeks, with the average litre of unleaded sitting around 152p, according to RAC data. Diesel has fared worse. For hauliers, farmers, and anyone with a commute longer than a bus ride, that’s a number that stings.
A Treasury spokesperson described the waiver as “a strictly limited and time-bound measure to protect UK consumers from acute supply shocks.” The phrasing is careful, almost apologetic. The government knows how this looks.
Critics on both sides of the aisle aren’t buying it. Some Conservative MPs have called it a capitulation; several Labour backbenchers have demanded a full parliamentary debate. The Ukrainian ambassador to London, meanwhile, issued a statement calling the move “a signal Moscow will not ignore.”
It’s worth remembering that the UK isn’t alone here. Several EU member states have quietly maintained carve-outs in their own sanctions regimes when the pressure has been on. Energy politics, as Brussels discovered long before London did, has a way of softening the hardest positions.
The waiver covers specific refined fuel products rather than crude oil, and officials insist it doesn’t represent a broader softening of the UK’s stance toward Russia. Whether that distinction holds up in practice remains to be seen.
The real question now is how long “temporary” actually means, and whether the Hormuz situation resolves quickly enough for the government to quietly close this particular door before anyone notices it was left too wide open.
