The world continues to buy oil and gas from Russia, financing the aggressor's ability to continue the war in Ukraine. During the 100 days of a full-scale invasion — from February 24 to June 3 — Moscow earned 93 billion euros ($98 billion) from fossil fuel exports, experts at the Finnish Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) estimated.
The European Union accounted for the largest share — 61% of the total export, or 57 billion euros. Globally, the top most loyal buyers are India, France, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. The listed countries increased their imports during the reporting period. The position of the largest importer was taken away from Germany by the PRC, since Berlin managed to somewhat reduce the volume of purchases of energy resources from the aggressor country.
The United States and Poland strained the Kremlin's wallet the most, cutting imports in May by 30 million euros and 20 million euros a day, respectively. Lithuania, Finland, and Estonia managed to cut their imports by more than half.
Mineral export revenues are the main source of financing Russia's military fury, providing 40 percent of federal budget revenues. The proceeds increased due to high global fuel prices, despite a decline in overall Russian exports.
Top 10 largest importing countries of Russian oil and gas during the 100 days of Russia's war in Ukraine:
- China — 12.6 billion euros of imports,
- Germany — 12.1 billion euros,
- Italy — 7.8 billion euros,
- The Netherlands — 7.8 billion euros,
- Turkey — 6.7 billion euros,
- Poland — 4.4 billion euros,
- France — 4.3 billion euros,
- India — 3.4 billion euros,
- South Korea — 3.4 billion euros.
Japan, the Netherlands, and China purchased the largest amount of coal in Russia during the 100 days of the war in Ukraine; LNG — France, Belgium and Japan; oil — China, the Netherlands, and Italy; pipeline gas — Germany, Italy, and Turkey.
The United States (by 100%), Sweden (99%), and Lithuania (76%) managed to reduce their dependence on Russian energy most of all.
"Progress today is too slow, given Ukraine's urgent need for support. More decisive action is needed to cut off the flow of funds to Russia. On a global scale, we need to expedite the deployment of clean energy to replace fossil imports and reduce high fuel prices that boost Russia's revenues," said CREA Lead Analyst Lauri Myllyvirta.
Context. Recall that the EU is already working on the seventh package of sanctions. It is expected to include tougher sanctions against Russian gas, an embargo on supplying Russia with technologies used by the aggressor in industry, etc.
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