Russian Oil Exports Surpass Pre-War Levels Despite Revenue Decline

Analysis of trade data reveals that Russia's energy sector shows significant resilience to Western economic pressure. According to the latest reports from London, the volume of oil exported by Russia is currently 6% higher than in 2021, the last full year before the full-scale aggression against Ukraine. This phenomenon is possible due to the construction of a comprehensive, secret trade infrastructure, valued at an estimated 90 billion dollars. A key element of this strategy was the use of a so-called "shadow fleet" and British overseas territories to conduct transactions concealing the origin of the raw material. Interestingly, this network was partially exposed by an operational error – Russian entities used the same mail server to service many supposedly independent firms. The Kremlin's financial situation remains complex. Although sales volume is increasing, the tightening of price caps and the change in supply routes have caused Russia's oil and gas revenues to fall by nearly 18% over the past year. Experts point out that Moscow must offer significant discounts to buyers in India and China to compensate for the risk associated with violating embargo. In response to this data, the United Kingdom announced a new sanctions package covering 300 entities, including the logistics giant Transneft and a network called 2Rivers. The aim is to target the insurance and transport systems that constitute a bottleneck for Russian exports. Since the 1970s, the economy of the Soviet Union, and later Russia, has been heavily dependent on hydrocarbon exports to Europe, creating a structure described as a "rentier state," living off the extraction of natural resources. Despite numerous restrictions being introduced, analysts warn of persistent loopholes in the system. Russian companies effectively exploit gaps in jurisdictions with low levels of financial oversight. The United Kingdom is now seeking to tighten procedures in the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar, where Russian assets worth 8 billion dollars were transferred under the guise of legitimate business operations. The fight to cut off Russia's funds for waging war is thus increasingly becoming a race between regulatory bodies and hackers and accountants building complex chains of capital connections.