Politico: Russia to receive €1bn in 2023 from selling oil products to the EU through third countries

Last year, EU countries purchased 1 billion euros worth of fuel from Russia, despite the ban on Russian oil exports to the EU.

Source. Politico writes about this, citing a report by the NGO Global Witness.

In 2023, the EU purchased approximately 35 million barrels of petroleum products, mostly diesel fuel, some of which was purchased from Russia. Despite the ban on most imports from Russia, EU countries can legally receive refined products from Russia. Thus, these oil products enter the EU through India and Turkey.

According to the publication, 1 billion euros can buy 60,000 Shahed-type kamikaze drones.

According to Estonia's Deputy Foreign Minister Erki Kodar, Russia continues to indirectly profit from selling fuel to Europe by exporting it through third countries.

Therefore, according to him, Brussels should address this problem and introduce a new rule, according to which suppliers of this fuel must report to European buyers on where the oil from which it was produced was purchased.

However, as noted, so far European officials have refrained from taking such steps due to fears of rising diesel prices and recession.

Earlier it became known that in January of this year, Russia's revenues from the export of oil and oil products increased by 1.4% compared to December last year. At the same time, the volume of supplies remained unchanged at 7.7 million barrels per day.