Latest news with #Urals
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Russian Oil Discount Lowest Since Start of War Despite EU Push
Russia's flagship Urals crude is trading at its narrowest discount relative to benchmark prices since the Kremlin started its war against Ukraine in 2022, suggesting that fresh European sanctions have so far failed to make an impact. The grade shipped from Russia's western ports has traded at an average discount of $11.45 a barrel to the North Sea Dated marker in recent days, according to Argus Media data compiled by Bloomberg. That's the narrowest gap since February 2022, when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Kuwait Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Kuwait Times
Russia slashes key rate amid slowdown fears
MOSCOW: Russia's central bank on Friday slashed its benchmark interest rate to 18 percent from 20 percent, its steepest cut in more than three years as policymakers race to avert a recession. Russia's economy has been marked by volatility since it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The central bank jacked its interest rates to an eye-watering high of 21 percent last October to combat inflation and kept them at that level until last month, when it eased to 20 percent. But sky-high borrowing rates have hit businesses hard, with some of the country's top corporate leaders putting pressure on the central bank to relax rates. Economists now say Russia's economic engine - driven largely by massive spending on the Ukraine conflict - could be slowing down, with the country posting its slowest quarterly expansion in two years in the first quarter of 2025. 'Current inflationary pressures, including underlying ones, are declining faster than previously forecast. Domestic demand growth is slowing,' the central bank said in a press release. Russia defied expectations that sanctions over the Ukraine offensive would push it into a deep and lengthy recession, as spending on weapons manufacturing, hefty payments to its hundreds of thousands of soldiers and generous increases in social welfare pushed up growth. The country's GDP grew in 2023 and 2024, but officials worry military spending is no longer sufficient to maintain growth and does not reflect a real increase in productivity. Deficit woes? In a statement on its website, the central bank kept its GDP forecasts unchanged at between one to two percent growth this year and 0.5-1.5 percent growth in 2026, down from four percent growth last year. Any hit to growth would likely worsen the country's deficit, which soared to $46 billion (1.7 percent of its GDP) in the first half of 2025 - almost 300 percent higher than in last year. Russian lawmakers have called for strict budget controls and austerity measures from next year, as falling oil revenues and bloating military spending deplete public funds. Russia's fossil fuel revenues dropped almost a fifth between January and June as oil prices fell due to a mix of sanctions, Trump's tariffs and rising output by other oil producing countries. The central bank also cut its forecast for the price of the Urals oil blend - a key benchmark for Russian crude prices - from $60 to $55 per barrel for this and next year. At a press conference, Governor Elvira Nabiullina said any drop in oil prices would be 'smoothed out' by the country's 'budget rule', which sees it sell foreign currency from its rainy day fund to make up for shortfalls in oil and gas revenues. The fund's liquid assets, those that can be spent immediately, were just $52 billion as of July 1 - down almost half from the more than $100 billion shortly before the Ukraine conflict. However, this doesn't mean Russia will scale back its military spending, now close to Soviet-era levels, said Alexander Kolyandr, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). 'Even if the war ends tomorrow, military spending will not be touched,' he told AFP. Kolyandr added that Moscow has enough fiscal levers to manage the deficit, including domestic borrowing, cutting back on state-subsidized loans, and selling off non-core assets. Russia's government debt is only about 20 percent of GDP, far below most major economies. 'I see the problem, but I don't think it's critical,' he concluded. If lower oil prices hold for longer, the fund might only be enough to compensate for budget shortcomings for one year, economists from Russia's Presidential Academy of National Economy have warned. 'Whether the budget rule is sustainable in the face of changing external conditions is, of course, a matter for discussion,' Nabiullina said. — AFP
BBC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
School-leavers losing their lives for Russia in Putin's war with Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised that no 18-year-olds called up to serve Russia will be sent to fight in Ukraine, but a BBC Russian investigation has found at least 245 soldiers of that age have been killed there in the past two government rules mean teenagers fresh out of school have been able to bypass military service and go straight into the regular army as contract may make up only a fraction of Russian losses, but cash bonuses and patriotic propaganda have made signing up an attractive Petlinsky enlisted two weeks after his 18th birthday. He was killed in Ukraine just 20 days later: one of hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine which has also claimed the lives of at least 13,500 Ukrainian civilians since Putin launched the invasion in February 2022. Petlinsky's aunt Ekaterina said he had dreamed of a career in medicine and won a place at a medical college in Chelyabinsk, an industrial regional centre in the Urals."But Sasha had another dream," she told a school memorial event. "When the special military operation began, Sasha was 15. And he dreamed of going to the front."In Ukraine, the call-up age is has managed to avoid a national mobilisation by offering lavish sums to men of fighting age - an especially attractive deal for those in poorer regions with few job men had to have at least three months of conscript service under their belts before signing a restriction was quietly dropped in April 2023, despite protests from some MPs, so now any young man who has reached the age of 18 and finished school can sign up to join the education system has ensured they are ready to enlist. Since the full-scale invasion began, teachers have been required by law to hold classes dedicated to the "special military operation", as the war is officially returning from the front visit schools to talk about their experiences, children are taught how to make camouflage nets and trench candles, and even nursery school pupils are encouraged to send letters and drawings to the the start of the last school year on 1 September 2024, a new subject was brought into the a throwback to the Soviet era, senior students are once again being taught how to use Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades as part of a course called "The Basics of Safety and Homeland Defence".In many regions, military recruiters now attend careers lessons in schools and technical colleges, telling young people how to sign up as contract soldiers after they Ivanov grew up in a small village in Siberia and dropped out of college where he was learning to be a got into trouble with police, and when he was accused of robbing a small shop in November 2024, he complained to his mother and girlfriend he had been beaten into giving a confession. His friend Mikhail told the BBC that Vitaly had always planned to do his military service when he turned 18. Then, together, they would go and find work building roads in Kazan, a city about 3,700km (2,300 miles) to the he signed a contract to join the army. His family have not ruled out that it was the police who "persuaded" day before he left he called his mother, Anna, to say he was about to leave."I'm off to the North-Eastern Military District," he other words, he was heading for and Alexander reached the frontline at about the same time in last message home on 5 February was to say he was being sent into combat."This was his first and last combat mission," says enlistment office rang her a month later to say he had died on 11 February. As part of BBC Russian's ongoing project using open sources to count Russia's war dead, we have identified and confirmed 245 names of 18-year-old contract soldiers killed in Ukraine between April 2023 - when the rules for joining up were eased - and July were enlisted as contract servicemen and, judging from published obituaries, most joined the armed forces according to our research, since the start of the full-scale invasion at least 2,812 Russian men aged 18-20 years have been killed in BBC's figures are based on open-source information and because not every death is publicly reported, the real losses are bound to be late July the BBC had established the names of 120,343 Russian soldiers killed during the full-scale war. Military experts estimate that makes up 45-65% of the real death toll, which would equate to 185,143 to 267,500 dead. When Alexander Petlinksy turned 18 on 31 January, the first thing he did was to apply to take a year out of college so he could sign a contract with the Defence he had wanted to become a doctor, he also dreamed of going to fight in next month he was already at the front, and on 9 March he died."As a citizen of the Russian Federation, I am proud of my son," his mother, Elena, told the BBC."But as a mother - I can't cope with this loss."She declined to say friend Anastasia says the fact that 18-year-olds are signing contracts to join the army is now a very "painful subject" for her."They're young and naive, and there's so much they don't understand," she says. "They just don't grasp the full responsibility of what they're doing."
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
CEO of Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara Energy resigns after E.U. sanctions, sources say
Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara Energy has named a new chief executive after its previous CEO resigned following European Union sanctions that targeted the company, four sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday (July 25, 2025). The reshuffle at the top is the latest disruption for the company since the EU announced a new round of sanctions last Friday directed at Russia over its war in Ukraine. This week, a tanker carrying Russian Urals crude was diverted away from Nayara's Vadinar port to unload its cargo at another port in western India, Reuters reported. That came after two other tankers skipped loading refined products from Vadinar, Reuters reported. Mumbai-based Nayara has appointed company veteran Sergey Denisov as chief executive to replace Alessandro des Dorides, the sources said. Denisov's appointment was decided at a board meeting on Wednesday, they said. Nayara Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Des Dorides, who joined Nayara Energy in April 2024, did not immediately respond to a message sent on LinkedIn. Denisov has been with the company since 2017. Nayara Energy has condemned the EU's "unjust and unilateral" decision to impose sanctions. Russia's Rosneft holds a 49.13% stake in Nayara and a similar stake is owned by a consortium, Kesani Enterprises Co Ltd, led by Italy's Mareterra Group and Russian investment group United Capital Partners. India, which has become the top importer of seaborne Russian oil in the aftermath of Moscow's Ukraine invasion, has also said it does not support the bloc's sanctions.e)
Business Recorder
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Tanker with Russian oil for sanctions-hit Nayara Energy diverts to another Indian port, sources say
NEW DELHI: An oil tanker carrying Russian Urals crude has been diverted away from the EU-sanctioned Nayara Energy's Vadinar port in India to unload its cargo at the port of Mundra, according to shipping data and four industry sources on Thursday. Two tankers have also skipped loading refined products from Vadinar port since Friday when Nayara, 49%-owned by oil producer Rosneft, was among companies targeted in a fresh package of sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia. The Omni tanker, carrying about 700,000 barrels of Urals, arrived at Vadinar port on July 18 and is now anchored off Mundra port, according to data from LSEG and Kpler and the sources on Thursday. Its destination was changed from Vadinar to Mundra on Wednesday, the data showed. It was not immediately clear why the cargo was not unloaded at Vadinar. Russia-backed Indian refiner condemns EU curbs The cargo has now been bought by a refinery operated by HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Mittal Energy Investments, the sources said. HMEL operates a 226,000 barrel-per-day refinery in northern Punjab state. HMEL and Nayara did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nayara operates a 400,000-bpd refinery in western India.
