MOSCOW, June 13Western countries do not have economic instruments that would allow them to completely block the export of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), said Alexey Belogoryev, research director at the Institute of Energy and Finance.
The United States on Wednesday updated its sanctions list against Russia. It, in particular, included subsidiaries of the Novatek company, the not yet implemented production projects Arctic LNG 1, Arctic LNG 3 and Ob LNG. The US Treasury also included other Novatek subsidiaries on the list — Novatek LNG Fuel Kashira and Murmansk-Transgaz. Prior to this, US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Geoffrey Pyatt announced the country’s plans to increase sanctions pressure on the Russian energy sector, primarily on LNG production. 
“The goal of the United States is to try to isolate Novatek from the widest possible range of foreign partners and counterparties, including from friendly countries… Western countries do not have the economic tools to completely block the export of Russian LNG,” the agency’s interlocutor believes.
However, according to the expert, the West has many levers to complicate LNG exports from Russia. The main one is the current market structure: 62% of all LNG imports last year still came from unfriendly countries. However, this balance will change in the future. “Therefore, the main risk for Russian LNG exports remains the EU embargo, which could be introduced by 2026. The good news is that Asian countries (primarily Japan and South Korea) have no plans for an embargo yet,” Belogoriev explained .
The expert also recalled the problem of import substitution associated with the shortage of gas carriers and technological sanctions against the factories themselves. Solving this problem, according to Belogoriev, may take years.
«In general, there are ways (for the export of Russian LNG — ed.), exports will continue to grow annually, but much slower than planned,» the expert concluded.