“It sets an example which profiteering companies have been only too happy to follow,” the letter said. “This in turn has undermined the entire Western sanctions regime.”
A government spokesperson said: “All government contracts are openly published online, and follow all U.K. sanctions and regulations. Like most U.K. suppliers, TotalEnergies purchases gas from the U.K. domestic open market, where the presence of Russian gas is extremely unlikely.”
The campaigners’ letter is signed by seven Ukraine-based and pro-Ukrainian groups. It calls on Thomas-Symonds — the minister with oversight of the government’s procurement body, Crown Commercial Service — to disclose all Whitehall contracts with TotalEnergies, commit to ending procurement from suppliers that maintain Russian energy ties, and set out a “clear plan for transitioning government departments to clean, conflict-free energy sources.”
Iryna Ptashnyk, a senior researcher at Razom We Stand, the Ukrainian campaign group that coordinated the letter, said it was “indefensible” that British taxpayers’ money is flowing to TotalEnergies. “The U.K. government must urgently show leadership [and] end these contracts,” she said.
TotalEnergies says it only supplies Russian gas to Europe from the Yamal liquefied natural gas complex in Siberia under long-term contractual arrangements, which predate Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and which it cannot break.
Gas supplied under TotalEnergies Gas & Power’s contracts with the U.K. government is procured on the domestic market, so it is highly unlikely any of it originated in Russia. In line with the U.K.’s ban, the company does not import Russian LNG directly to the U.K.