Web: Sanctions on Russian oil exports are working, costing Russia billions of dollars

Sanctions on Russian oil exports are starting to bear fruit and hit the Russian economy, reports investigative outlet istories.media, according to which Russia lost $15.6 billion (341 billion crowns) in oil revenues in the first quarter of this year. Fears that oil prices might soar on global markets because of EU sanctions have also failed to materialise.

At the beginning of December last year, a ban on imports of Russian oil into the European Union and G7 countries came into force. Deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline are exempt from the ban. Its southern branch runs to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, while the northern branch runs to Poland and Germany. In parallel, the European bloc also introduced a price cap on Russian oil. An EU embargo on imports of petroleum products also came into force on 5 February.

One result of these measures is a decline in Russia’s total oil exports, according to istories.media, citing an analysis by an international expert group led by Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, together with Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia who works at Stanford University. In the first quarter of this year, Russia exported an average of 4.3 million barrels of oil per day, compared with 4.9 million barrels last year.