Use of OSINT tools in the structure of the implementation of sanctions pressure by the EU and the USA against the Russian oil and gas sector

The relevance of the research topic is due to unprecedented sanctions pressure on Russian business and the improvement of sanctions policy tools by Western countries, namely the EU and the United States. Currently, along with traditional financial, blocking and sectoral sanctions, smart sanctions play a key role, allowing the most targeted impact on the target country, prohibiting interaction with certain legal entities or individuals, the damage to which, from the position of the subject country of unilateral sanctions, will entail the greatest harm to the addressee of sanctions. In this context, it is important to assess the contribution of open-­source competitive intelligence (OSINT) to sanction companies in the Russian oil and gas industry, which is a capital-­intensive industry requiring significant investments, including leveraged and foreign capital. It should be highlighted that the implementation of sanctions pressure poses a threat to the foreign economic activity of Russian oil and gas companies, including the conduct of cross-­border transactions and the smooth functioning of joint ventures. Based on the literature review, the author’s interpretation of the term “OSINT”. The purpose of this study is a comprehensive analysis of approaches to the OSINT methodology and its use in the EU and US sanctions policy against the Russian oil and gas sector. The study was carried out using data from scientific papers of domestic and foreign scientists, statistical and expert data, on the basis of which a comparative analysis of the use of OSINT technology was carried out in order to impose sanctions. The study highlights the variability in the use of OSINT tools by US and EU institutions in terms of sanctions policy, presents the legal grounds for the implementation of such methods in accordance with the regulatory legal acts of states. In addition, the authors developed recommendations to minimize the risk of implementing OSINT methods with subsequent sanctions listing for companies in the Russian oil and gas sector, including both organizational and legal and economic measures at the corporate level.