A report by an independent think tank published on Tuesday (September 6th) said Russia collected 158 billion euros in fossil fuel export revenue during the six-month war, taking advantage of high prices. “Rising fossil fuel prices mean Russia’s current revenues are well ahead of previous years, despite shrinking exports.”highlighted in a report by the Finland-based Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA).
Gas prices rose to historic levels in Europe, while oil prices rose at the start of the war before falling recently. “Fossil fuel exports contribute an estimated €43 billion to Russia’s federal budget, helping finance war crimes in Ukraine.”, the authors calculated. These figures are estimated for the first six months of the war, from February 24 to August 24, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia could not find other buyers”.
During this period, CREA estimates that the leading importer of Russian fossil fuels is the European Union (at €85.1 billion), followed by China and Turkey. The EU has decided to gradually impose an embargo on the import of its oil and oil products. It has also already ended its coal purchases, but Russian gas, on which it is heavily dependent, is not currently a concern. The think tank believes, however, that the European coal embargo implemented on August 10 has paid off, as Russian exports have since fallen to their lowest level since the invasion of Ukraine. “Russia could not find other buyers”.write the authors of the report.
CREA, on the other hand, considers that the rules “stronger” should be implemented to prevent Russian oil from entering markets where it is believed to be prohibited. According to him, today Western sanctions are very easily circumvented. “The EU should ban the use of European ships and ports to transport Russian oil to third countries”., he thinks so. The United Kingdom is also being urged to ban its insurance sector from participating in such international transport.
For their part, the G7 countries decided to impose limits on Friday “urgent” the price of Russian oil, a complex mechanism to be put in place and intended to deal another blow to Moscow’s energy contingency.
Source: Le Figaro
