MORE than 20 pro-Ukraine groups, including MSPs, are calling for tougher sanctions on Russia by banning companies in the UK which are helping the country export gas.
Campaigners want stricter measures in place by banning Seapeak Maritime from exporting the country’s gas around Europe.
The Glasgow shipping firm has been accused of helping Russian President Vladimir Putin fund his ongoing war in Ukraine.
Peter Cooper, secretary of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign in Scotland, said: “As long as UK-based companies like Seapeak Maritime continue to help Russia export its gas, the UK is failing to live up to its moral responsibility.”
The war in Ukraine began in 2022 when Russia invaded the country, and Putin has been using the country’s gas reserves to help fund his illegal war.
The UK Government banned all ships with any Russian connection from entering British ports in the same year. However, UK firms are not banned from transporting Russian gas to other countries around the world.
Seapeak Maritime, based in Glasgow near the Clyde, manages and operates tankers such as the Yakov Gakkel which carries Russian gas from Siberia to Europe.
The work is legal and does not breach any sanctions, however, campaigners are calling for the loophole to be closed.
The Razom We Stand group, which campaigns for a ban on Russian fossil fuels, has written a letter to Keir Starmer urging the UK Government to impose stricter measures on UK firms helping to transport Russian gas.
More than 20 pro-Ukraine organisations, as well as SNP and Labour politicians, have signed the letter.
The letter states: “We stand with Ukraine in calling for a just peace based on the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine. We support sanctions on Russian exports to reduce Russia’s ability to finance its war of aggression, including on its exports of climate damaging fossil fuels, mainly oil ($200bn) and natural gas ($71bn). Together these comprise over half of Russian exports by value.
“Russia is planning to massively expand its production and export of LNG from the Siberian Arctic Yamal Peninsula gas field. Yamal is estimated to hold 25% of the world’s gas reserves, the extraction of which would significantly contribute to global heating.”
The campaigners specifically mentioned “Glasgow-based corporation Seapeak” in its public letter as it said: “The UK government has banned the importation of Russian LNG. But it hasn’t sanctioned its shipping by UK-based businesses to third countries, including to the EU, nor has it sanctioned the insurance by City insurers of tankers engaged in the trade.
"We call on the UK government to ban the participation of UK-based companies in transporting or providing insurance for the shipping of Russian LNG. We call on both the Scottish and UK governments to deny any financial or other forms of assistance to all companies engaged in these activities.”
Glasgow Greens MSP Patrick Harvie said: "It's been over two and a half years since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, leaving hundreds of thousands dead or wounded. It's completely unacceptable that after all this time there are still UK-based companies providing the economic support that allows Russia to continue financing this criminal war of aggression.
“The UK Government must end the complicity of UK-based companies, and move us away from our reliance on fossil fuels so that we're never again beholden to dictatorships like Russia and Saudi Arabia.”
Svitlana Romanko, founder and executive director of Razom We Stand, said: “Every shipment of Russian LNG that makes its way to European ports is another lifeline for Putin’s war machine, prolonging the suffering of the Ukrainian people. While bombs and missiles devastate our cities, it is these economic ties that fuel the Kremlin’s ability to wage war.
“By allowing UK-based firms to insure Russian LNG shipments, or those like Seapeak to transport it, the UK is indirectly financing the destruction of Ukrainian cities with missiles and bombs. The UK government must act decisively to cut off these financial flows and stop contributing to the devastation of our people and our future.”
