Tom Keatinge
Tom Keatinge is Director of RUSI's Centre for Finance and Security, focusing on illicit finance, sanctions enforcement and economic statecraft.
Last refreshed: 1 June 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why did RUSI's finance security director call the UK Russian fuel deal an embarrassment?
Timeline for Tom Keatinge
called the UK sanctions easing an embarrassment for Downing Street and poorly communicated
European Oil Markets: Starmer reopens UK door to Russian fuel- Who called the UK Russian fuel import deal an embarrassment?
- Tom Keatinge, director of RUSI's Centre for Finance and Security, called the Starmer government's decision to ease UK sanctions on Russian-origin fuel products 'an embarrassment for Downing Street' and criticised it as poorly communicated.Source: Lowdown european-oil-markets briefing
- What is RUSI's Centre for Finance and Security?
- RUSI's Centre for Finance and Security, directed by Tom Keatinge, is the UK's leading independent research unit on illicit finance, economic sanctions, and the use of financial tools in national security. It provides analysis to UK Government, parliamentary committees, and law enforcement on money laundering, sanctions evasion, and counter-terrorism financing.Source: RUSI
Background
Tom Keatinge is the founding director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, the UK's leading defence and security think-tank. The centre focuses on illicit finance, economic sanctions, money laundering, and the use of financial tools in national security. Keatinge is one of the most prominent voices in UK policy debates on sanctions effectiveness and financial crime, and has given evidence to parliamentary committees on counter-terrorism financing and sanctions evasion.
Keatinge was directly quoted in reporting on the Starmer government's May 2026 decision to ease UK sanctions to permit imports of jet fuel and diesel refined from Russian crude in third countries. He called the policy an embarrassment for Downing Street and criticised it as poorly communicated, comments that were reported alongside RUSI colleague Petras Katinas's quantitative estimate of $1.2-1.4 billion per year in permitted flows. The combination of a governance critique from Keatinge and a revenue estimate from Katinas gave critics of the policy a dual public-interest angle.
Keatinge's public commentary carries weight in Westminster and Whitehall because the Centre for Finance and Security is part of RUSI's analytical infrastructure, which retains close links to the UK Ministry of Defence, HMRC, and the National Crime Agency. His criticism of the Russian-product easing therefore reflected institutional as well as personal concern about the policy's coherence with the UK's broader Ukraine-related sanctions posture.
