Russia’s revenues from its fossil fuel exports, which account for huge chunks of the Kremlin’s incomings, have dropped significantly during the course of the war. They are down 27% from the year before the invasion, and dropped 19% over the last year, according to a report from the Centre of Research on Energy and Clean Air. The main reason for this isn’t lower export volumes, though: fossil fuel export volumes only dropped 14% from the year before the invasion, and 3% last year. Instead, Russia’s declining oil revenue appears to be caused by the plunging price of fossil fuels like crude oil, which had fallen below $60 per barrel late last year – it was above $100 per barrel during the first few months of the war. It won’t help either that the discount on sanctioned Russian oil has reached its highest level since 2023.
