🗞️ Top story: Lukoil declares ‘force majeure’ in Iraq as U.S. sanctions rattle global operations

The international operations of Russian oil major Lukoil have been severely hampered by U.S. sanctions imposed last month, forcing the company to declare “force majeure” at its crucial West Qurna-2 field in Iraq on Monday.

The Iraqi field is Lukoil’s most prized foreign asset, accounting for about 9 percent of the country’s total oil output (480,000 barrels per day). Due to the sanctions, Iraq has halted all cash and crude payments to the company, leading to the cancellation of roughly 4 million barrels of crude oil allocated to Lukoil for November.

Exit risk: If the force majeure conditions are not resolved within six months, Lukoil will shut production and exit the project entirely, according to a senior Iraqi official.Failed deal: The crisis escalated after Lukoil’s attempt to sell its foreign assets to Swiss trader Gunvor failed last week when the U.S. Treasury rejected the bid, calling the trader the Kremlin’s “puppet.”

Lukoil’s struggle has triggered a scramble across Europe to secure energy assets before the November 21 sanctions cut-off. Bulgaria, for example, is already moving to seize Lukoil’s Burgas oil refinery. | Reuters / Bloomberg

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A digest of Russia’s investigative reports and news analysis. If it matters, we summarize it.

🛜 Digital control & military manpower: FSB gains legal right to shut down Internet 📶

The coming shatdaun: Russia’s Digital Development Ministry has drafted legislation that would require telecommunication operators to cut off services upon request from the Federal Security Service. Experts warn the changes will effectively legalize Internet shutdowns and grant the FSB “exclusive authority” to disconnect citizens from the World Wide Web in the name of “state security.” | Vedomosti / Agentstvo

A hidden draft: At least 19 Russian regions have begun the mass recruitment of military reservists under a new law, ostensibly to guard critical infrastructure against drones. Despite official promises that reservists will serve only in their “home region,” military lawyers caution that the language of the new federal law contains no such limits, meaning the Defense Ministry can deploy them to the front lines of the war in annexed parts of Ukraine. | Agentstvo

🏭 Wartime economics: Key state-linked firms delaying paychecks 💰

As a potential sign of worsening economic stress, two companies central to the Kremlin’s strategic interests have been withholding employees’ salaries for months: the defense contractor Kingisepp Machine Works (KMZ) and the nuclear infrastructure firm Orgenergostroy. This news follows recent reports of job cuts at tank producer Uralvagonzavod (UVZ). | Agentstvo / DP.ru

🌍 Global Notes

A village of draft dodgers. The New York Times reports that the Ukrainian town of Vylkove on the Danube River is facing an acute draft-evasion problem, with men of military age having all but vanished, highlighting Ukraine’s struggle to replenish front-line forces. | NYT

Victory Day conviction. A jury in Russia’s Primorsky Krai has found local “Yabloko” party official Marina Zheleznyakova guilty of “rehabilitating Nazism” for a 2021 social media post that highlighted the Soviet Union’s role in beginning WWII. | Mediazona

Putin’s India trip. The Kremlin confirmed it is “actively preparing” for President Vladimir Putin to visit India in December, despite calls from President Trump for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce Russian oil purchases. | Reuters

$4.79 billion

The approximate annual income of Ukraine’s state nuclear power operator Energoatom, which is at the center of the alleged $100 million kickback scheme. | Reuters

21 years

The time Sergey Lavrov has served as Russia’s foreign minister. Lavrov’s recent absence from a Kremlin meeting has raised speculation that he’s fallen out of favor with Putin. | The Guardian

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🛂 The big one not to miss

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Cover photo: A Lukoil oil processing facility near the city of Pokach, February 17, 2015 / Iliya Pitalev / RIA Novosti / Scanpix