The claim
Britain has started buying Russian gas again because it has no choice.
False. Not roughly true. Not true with a missing footnote. The sentence changes the product, the transaction and the policy.
What Britain actually allowed was narrower and still worth criticizing: temporary imports of diesel and jet fuel made in third countries from Russian crude oil. A separate exception lets British companies continue some maritime services for Russian liquefied natural gas moving between other countries. Neither measure restarts Russian gas imports into Britain.
What changed
On 20 May 2026, the UK introduced a new ban on oil products refined in third countries from Russian crude. At the same time, it issued a temporary licence for diesel and jet fuel while that ban was phased in. The government later set 1 January 2027 as the licence's latest end date and said it would review the measure every two weeks.
That licence is a real loophole. Fuel made from Russian crude can still enter Britain during the transition. Anyone who thinks that compromises pressure on Vladimir Putin has a case to make. But diesel and jet fuel are oil products. They are not natural gas.
The gas part concerns shipping services. New rules restrict British companies from helping transport Russian LNG between third countries. An exception keeps some older, qualifying contracts alive until 1 January 2027. The statutory guidance describes supply by ship from one third country to another. It does not replace the separate ban on Russian LNG entering Britain.
That import ban has been in force since 1 January 2023. The current importer notice still states that Russian LNG cannot be imported or acquired for entry into Britain.
The headline did the travelling
On 20 May, The Guardian ran the headline: “UK delays some sanctions on Russian oil and gas amid Middle East conflict.” The article underneath separated the two measures correctly. It described imported jet fuel and diesel on one side and shipping services for LNG on the other.
The headline compressed them into “oil and gas”, “delays sanctions” and “soaring prices”. Detach those words from the article and the mutation is easy: Britain relaxed gas sanctions. Britain is buying Russian gas. Britain had no choice.
The Guardian did not report that final claim. We cannot prove that any one reader got the rumour from that headline. We do not need to invent a transmission chain to see the danger. A technically defensible headline can still launch a false story when its missing distinctions are the entire point.
Why the mutation matters
The lie carries a political lesson: Europe is foolish to support Ukraine, sanctions never work and Russia is too necessary to resist. That lesson flatters the Kremlin whether the person repeating it means to spread propaganda or merely passes on something that sounded plausible.
Precision does not require a defence of British policy. The oil licence deserves scrutiny because it leaves a route for fuel derived from Russian crude. The LNG services exception deserves scrutiny because British expertise can still support parts of Russia's export trade. Those are documented choices with consequences.
Changing oil into gas makes the criticism louder and weaker. It gives the falsehood an escape route: once challenged, its defenders can point to a real sanctions exception and pretend the original sentence was close enough. It was not.
Britain did not decide to start buying Russian gas again. It opened temporary, contested routes around new restrictions on processed oil and LNG services. That is bad enough to debate honestly. The invented surrender story belongs in the bin.