Russia’s fuel export revenues will be enough for 4 wars
25 February 08:31
According to a new report, fossil fuel exports brought Russia €242 billion (approximately $253.8 billion) in revenue in the third year of the war in Ukraine, with some of the revenue coming indirectly from Western countries despite sanctions. Newsweek writes about this, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
This is a report by the independent research organization Center for Energy and Clean Air Research and the B4Ukraine campaign, which was exclusively provided to Newsweek.
Key facts
The revenue figures in the report show that Western sanctions only allow Russia to earn more, as in 2021, before the sanctions, Russia earned only $199.1 billion from fuel exports.
In total, over the three years of the full-scale war, Russia has earned €847 billion from energy. This amount is 4 times higher than the $211 billion that the Pentagon estimates Moscow spent on the war from 2022 to 2024.
Since February 24, 2022, Western countries have been working to stop importing Russian oil and have not been able to achieve this, presumably because they do not really want to. The EU has spent more on Russian fuel than on aid to Ukraine.
Many countries have not imposed sanctions against Russia. According to the report, some fuel products have reached the West through third countries, including China, India, and Turkey.
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In the third year of the war, the G7 countries imported €18 billion worth of petroleum products from six refineries in India and Turkey, of which €9 billion was allegedly refined from Russian crude oil. This brought Moscow approximately €4 billion in tax revenues.
Overall, crude oil was Russia’s main source of revenue, bringing in €104 billion. Other sources were gas, coal and liquefied natural gas.
In addition, according to the report, foreign enterprises paid $60 billion in taxes to Moscow between 2022 and 2024. Among them were American firms in Russia, which paid $1.2 billion in income taxes in 2023, making the United States the largest such taxpayer to the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, according to the report, Moscow continued to import computer numerical control (CNC) machines used to produce weapons, among other products from foreign sources. According to the report, China produced 63 percent of these shipments. Taiwan produced 9 percent and South Korea 5.5 percent of the CNC machines.
Europe and gas
As of early 2022, the EU was 40% dependent on Russian gas. In 2021, 65% of the gas purchased by Germany was Russian. In the third quarter of 2023, only 12% of the gas imported by the EU remained Russian.
At the same time, some EU countries, such as Hungary and Slovakia, remain dependent on Russian gas. These countries’ contracts with Gazprom provide for gas supplies through the Ukrainian gas transportation system. Austria has signed a contract for gas supplies until 2040, but it has already declared that it has become independent of Russian fuel.
With both Nord Stream and the Ukrainian GTS out of commission, Russia will be able to supply gas to Europe only through the Turkish Stream.According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the European Union has bought 205 billion euros worth of energy from Russia.
