Within the next few days, it seems increasingly likely that the European Union will announce some kind of gradual embargo that prevents member states from purchasing Russian oil in response to the invasion of Ukraine. In practice, though, there are already de facto curbs on swaths of purchases from Russia that are likely to restrict the nation’s trade — not just with Europe but further afield. The world’s top traders are already retreating from handling Russian crude because of an abundance of caution in how they’re interpreting existing rules. Likewise, many of the continent’s largest oil companies have also been disentangling themselves from Moscow since the attack on Ukraine began. The top trading houses are interpreting existing regulations as prohibiting them from paying Rosneft PJSC, Gasprom Neft PJSC and Transneft PJSC for products that are not ‘ strictly necessary ’ beyond a May 15 deadline. Rosneft is the main […]