Michael MacKay, Radio Lemberg, 08.03.2018

Russia succeeded in busting sanctions for a second time, and the US government blithely allowed it to happen. Another shipment of liquid natural gas arrived in Boston on March 3 from sanctioned Russian concern Novatek. An earlier breach made in America’s sanctions regime against Russia has now been widened. The defence of Western civilization from Russian aggression has been weakened.

A Russian company called Novatek owns Yamal LNG, which ships liquid natural gas from northern Russia. Novatek is a sanctioned entity because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Doing business with Novatek gives material assistance to the Muscovy regime which is at war with Ukraine. Novatek poses a grave threat to international peace and security, which is why helping the Russian company is illegal. The oil and gas industries in Russia fuel Putin’s war machine. Cutting them off from global commerce is an effective way of stopping Putin and restoring peace.

Despite being explicitly sanctioned by the US government, Novatek has shipped liquid natural gas to the port of Boston twice. On March 3, the tanker “Provalys” of the French company Engie, loaded with liquid natural gas from Novatek-owned Yamal LNG, docked in Boston. (Engie is also a minority partner in the Nord Stream 2 scheme of Russia’s Gazprom to deprive Ukraine of gas transit revenue and wreck the European Union’s energy security policy of natural gas source diversification.) The March 3 shipment was the second delivery of sanctioned Russian gas: on January 28 the tanker “Gaselys,” also from Engie, busted sanctions with a shipment of Yamal LNG/Novatek liquid natural gas.

When Russia finds weakness in the West, it exploits it. During the first phase of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in August 2014, the Putin regime sent a truck convoy of weapons, ammunition, and matériel to its army in Donbas and thinly disguised it as “humanitarian aid.” After effete Western leaders took no action and did not challenge the convoy, Russia subsequently sent 75 more convoys to fuel its war machine – inflicting death and horror on Europeans in eastern Ukraine. Similarly, the Putin regime presented its first shipment of liquid natural gas on January 28 as “aid” to New England during a hard, cold winter. Novatek claimed falsely that the shipment did not violate sanctions and it never mentioned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After an oblivious Washington administration allowed the January 28 shipment, the Putin regime knew that the sanctions regime was ineffective and quickly proceeded to violate it a second time on March 3. It is a certainty that Russia will breach sanctions again and again, as long as the US government continues to allow it.

Yamal LNG/Novatek announced that it would soon deliver liquid natural gas to Royal Dutch Shell in London. Shell is also a minority partner in the Nord Stream 2 scheme that Russia is wielding as a weapon against Europe.

The Russian propagandists are having a field day mocking Americans for their weakness. The Kremlin information warriors are proud to be busting sanctions. The propaganda outlet Sputnik posted a video with the headline: “WATCH Second LNG Tanker With Russian Gas Arriving in Boston.” Sputnik wrote that the shipment occurred “despite Washington’s sanctions against Moscow and amid its grand plans of conquering Europe’s gas market.” The US press buries this story, but Russian propagandists give it wide prominence as another defeat of the United States.

Russia is making no attempt to hide its rank corruption on the world stage. The Putin regime is thumbing its nose at Americans for any concern they may have about Russia invading Ukraine or about Russia falsifying the US election. And they’re getting away with it. Not only is the US government not stopping Putin, but it is not even enforcing existing sanctions it has to try to restrain Russian aggression.