No matter how harsh the sanctions are, there will always be a way to bypass them. Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the US has banned imports of Russian fossil fuels. However, recently, the US Treasury Department has allowed certain energy-related transactions with sanctioned Russian banks to continue through December 5, 2022. The US permitted payment operations with such Russian banks as Vnesheconombank, Otkritie Bank, Sovcombank, Sberbank, VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, and Russia's Central Bank. Transactions related to energy are specifically defined to mean “the extraction, production, refinement, liquefaction, gasification, regasification, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, transportation, and purchase of petroleum, including crude oil.” This also applies to a number of other fossil fuels including LNG, petroleum products, natural gas, coal, lumber, and uranium. The permit covers “production, transmission or exchange of energy by any means, including nuclear, thermal and renewable sources.”
