TL;DR

  • The EU imported nearly 10 million tonnes of Russian LNG worth close to 57 billion kroner in the first half of 2026 – a 16 percent increase from the previous year
  • European buyers absorbed more than 97 percent of capacity from Russia's Yamal LNG facility
  • The EU adopted a ban on Russian LNG in September 2025, effective January 2027, but imports are accelerating in the meantime
  • According to analytics firm Chainalysis, Russia is increasingly using crypto and alternative payment systems to circumvent Western sanctions

EU stockpiling Russian gas against the clock

European energy markets sent a contradictory signal in the first half of 2026: while politicians in Brussels pledge to wean themselves off Russian energy, imports are actually rising. According to shipping data from analytics firm Kpler, the EU imported nearly 9.97 million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia's Yamal facility in Siberia between January and June – a 16 percent increase compared to the same period in 2025. The total value came to approximately 5.96 billion euros, equivalent to around 6.82 billion dollars.

European buyers thus absorbed more than 97 percent of the Yamal facility's total output during the period, despite the EU officially charting a course away from Russian energy since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

European players are buying more Russian gas than ever – two years after promising to stop.
EU buying record amounts of Russian LNG – defying its own sanctions - Bilde 1

Cautious stockpiling ahead of the ban

The most commonly cited explanation is strategic pre-purchasing: since the EU adopted its 19th sanctions package in September 2025 – which for the first time includes an explicit ban on Russian LNG imports from January 2027 – European energy companies have had an incentive to fill storage and secure supplies while it is still legal and possible.

It is a logic the market recognises from previous sanctions cycles – buy now, face the consequences later. The question is what long-term consequences this accumulation will have for the EU's credibility as a sanctions power.

9.97 mt
Russian LNG imported by the EU (H1 2026)
+16%
Increase from H1 2025
€5.96bn
Paid to Russia
EU buying record amounts of Russian LNG – defying its own sanctions - Bilde 2

Russia building parallel financial infrastructure

Alongside record LNG export revenues, Russia is actively working to shield those revenues from Western sanctions – and cryptocurrency is playing a growing role in that effort.

Analytics firm Chainalysis describes the emergence of a "shadow crypto economy" in which Russia is increasingly using digital assets for international transactions, particularly with trading partners in Asia and the Middle East. A ruble-backed digital token called A7A5, issued by the Kyrgyzstan-based company Old Vector and backed by Russian state bank Promsvyazbank, has reportedly processed transactions worth more than 51 billion dollars, according to Chainalysis.

Russia legalised the use of cryptocurrency for international settlements in July 2024 and conducted its first international crypto transactions under a confidentiality regime later that same year.

Experts warn against overstating the crypto effect

It is important to put this in perspective: experts are far from unanimous on the extent to which crypto actually undermines the sanctions regime. Ari Redbord of TRM Labs has pointed out that the crypto market simply does not have the capacity to handle the financing needs of an economy the size of Russia's. When the war in Ukraine broke out, the total value of all crypto assets was approximately 1.7 trillion dollars – roughly comparable to the Russian banking sector's total assets of 1.4 trillion dollars.

Blockchain transactions are also pseudonymous, not anonymous. Sophisticated analytical tools from companies such as Chainalysis and TRM Labs can trace money flows, making large-scale sanctions evasion via crypto considerably riskier than it appears on the surface.

The 2027 ban: What happens to European gas supply?

The big question is what happens when the ban actually takes effect. Yamal LNG accounted for a significant share of European gas imports, and replacement volumes from the US, Qatar, and other suppliers are already partially priced into the markets.

For the Norwegian continental shelf and Equinor, a permanent decline in Russian LNG to Europe could in theory represent a window for increased exports – but Norway's production ceiling and infrastructure constraints limit the scope for rapid capacity increases in the short term.

The coming months will reveal whether the EU actually holds the line at the start of 2027 – or whether exemptions and delays are once again sought.