Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

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"It's a really extraordinary moment, we have an out-of-power ex-president who is in effect, dictating American foreign policy on behalf of a foreign dictator or with the interests of a foreign dictator in mind," @anneapplebaum tells @JeffreyGoldberg. pic.twitter.com/sXACvl4mnT

— Washington Week with The Atlantic | PBS (@washingtonweek) March 23, 2024

Тривожно 🫂 pic.twitter.com/vcw4BcOaQB

— IgorGirkin (@GirkinGirkin) March 24, 2024

More footage of the Ukrainian attack on an oil depot in temporarily Russian occupied Hvardiiske, Crimea pic.twitter.com/jyPvbh1wTU

— Giorgi Revishvili (@revishvilig) March 24, 2024

Now that fleet will need to find work elsewhere — and there are signs it's struggling. At least seven of the vessels have come to a halt in the Black Sea and disappeared from digital monitoring systems, tanker tracking by Bloomberg shows. Sovcomflot admitted this week that sanctions had hurt its operations.

Delivery costs for Russian oil are huge. It costs about $14.50 a barrel to delivery a Baltic Sea cargo to China, according to data from Argus Media. Well over half that sum is attributable to sanctions, it estimates.

A further setback for Moscow has emerged in its sale of refined fuels. An average of 6.2 million barrels of Russian diesel was floating in the 10 days to March 17, according to data from Kpler That's the highest the measure's been since at least 2017.

While it's not clear that sanctions have caused the buildup, it's striking that so much product is accumulating at a time when drone strikes ought to have curbed supplies.

"Washington still has powerful tools to hurt Russian oil exports, but has used them cautiously, fearing a spike in gas prices in an election year," said Kluge.

Russia’s Oil Is Finally Getting Snarled by Sanctions on Its Tankers - Bloomberg