Banned Russian oil is coming to Canada. Here’s how [Video]

Millions of dollars worth of Russian oil is coming into Canada thanks to a loophole in federal sanctions, providing much-needed income for the Kremlin to fuel its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

CBC News’s visual investigations team, in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), found that since the start of the Ukraine war roughly 2.5 million barrels — or $250 million worth of refined petroleum products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — have ended up in Canada. 

Based on calculations made by CREA, those Canadian oil imports have provided the Kremlin with just over $100 million in revenue, enough to recruit thousands of soldiers in Russia.

“When consumers in Canada are buying vehicle fuels or getting on flights, there is a high probability that a proportion of those jet fuels or diesels … could be made from Russian crude,” said Isaac Levi, Europe-Russia Policy and Energy Analysis team lead at …