The government has decided to ban Russian ships from docking in domestic Ports, as well as to not provide any services to Russia's maritime and financial industry at the request of the United States of America (USA).

Thus, Mozambique prohibits exchanges with seven shipping companies and the berthing or docking of 69 ships from the Russian Federation, whose descriptive and nominal list we could not ascertain.

In the document, dated August 18, 2022, to which MZNews had access, the US cites Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the reason for the sanctions. In fact, it reads that the companies and ships are "allegedly involved in harmful activities associated with Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine."

The information is contained in Service Order No. 16 of the Tax Authority (AT)/Directorate General of Customs (DGA)/ 900/2022, according to which the Ministry of Transport and Communications makes AT officials and customs brokers aware of the 'new US sanctions against Russian shipping companies'.

The note states that the US government submitted the request to the Mozambican counterpart through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. This Ministry, in turn, assigned the Ministry of Transport and Communications the task of forwarding the information to TA.

Recently, the Russian ambassador to Mozambique expressed his country's openness to expand commercial relations with the host country, focusing on the supply of fuel at more competitive market prices and in rubles (Russian currency).

With this, Mozambique was reluctant to "grab" the Russian proposal, but the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Carlos Zacarias, publicly expressed the Government's willingness to assess the viability of the proposal.

In contrast, the American ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas, warned African countries not to buy Russian fuel on pain of incurring sanctions, and should limit themselves to the purchase of grain and fertilizer. This warning was issued from Uganda following the communication from the Russian ambassador in Maputo.

However, Tomaz Salomão, PCA of Standard Bank Mozambique, rebutted the American claiming that international relations are currently handled according to the particular interests of each nation. The diplomat made it understood that Mozambique has sovereign power to decide whether or not to buy Russian fuel according to verifiable feasibility for its development interests.

This analysis was also corroborated by Luísa Diogo, PCA of Absa Bank, who noted the support of the Constitution of the Republic for any decision selected on the subject. And, the Constitution states that Mozambique can buy fuel from whomever it wants.

Analysts have warned that Mozambique could get a bad deal by accepting Russian fuel, because the country is heavily dependent on foreign aid coming mostly from American and European countries in favor of sanctions against Russia.

Whenever Mozambique was called upon to take a position, for or against the sanctions and embargoes imposed on Russia, it always remained politically correct, opting for neutrality. This was in order to safeguard the history of relations with the parties in conflict, in this case the US and Russia.