FP: some European countries have turned a blind eye to sanctions and increased oil supplies from Russia
Russia’s oil export revenues in April may significantly exceed those of the same period in previous years, Foreign Policy writes.
The reason is that energy supplies to Europe, India and Turkey are grown, the author explained.
“Now many countries that have imposed restrictions against Russia are seriously reducing their effect by buying energy resources from it. In some cases, the volume of supplies in April was even higher than in March,” the publication said.
The columnist cited Matt Smith, an expert at Kpler, an oil supply tracking company, who noted that black gold exports increased from 3.3 million barrels a day in March to 3.6 million in April, despite the West’s sanctions against Moscow.
“The main conclusion is that actually Russian crude oil exports are higher so far this month than in previous months. That’s surprising,” Smith explained.
For his part, former State Department specialist Edward Fishman suggested that Russia gets at least a billion dollars a day from oil and gas sales.
“The lion’s share goes to Europe. Military aid supplied by some European countries to Ukraine is insignificant compared to payments for Russian oil and gas,” Fishman stressed.