Enlarge image
Has less money to distribute: Russian President Vladimir Putin
Photo: IMAGO/Mikhail Metzel / IMAGO/ITAR-TASS
The pressure on Russia's state finances is apparently increasing.
According to calculations by the "Bloomberg" news agency, the Russian state's income from the sale of oil and gas has almost halved recently.
The exports are carried out by corporations.
However, the Russian state benefits from this, among other things through taxes that it levies on the export of raw materials.
According to »Bloomberg«, these taxes were down 46 percent in February compared to the same month last year (click here for the report).
Overall, the treasury earned $ 6.9 billion in the past month.
There are several reasons for this development: On the one hand, Russia can only sell large parts of its crude oil exports internationally at high discounts after the G7 introduced a price cap.
However, crude oil prices have also fallen significantly overall compared to the same point in the previous year - and not just for the Russian oil variety Urals.
The Brent variety also cost around $125 a barrel a year ago, but recently it was only around $85.
Kremlin introduces new taxes
Income from the gas business also fell sharply.
For one thing, prices for Russian gas have recently fallen significantly.
On the other hand, Russia has stopped exporting pipeline gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
The result: According to "Bloomberg", Russia's gas revenues have fallen by 42 percent compared to the previous year.
The composition of gas profits is remarkable: Gazprom's income from gas export duties fell by as much as 81 percent due to the delivery stops.
Revenue from the mineral oil production tax, which was also levied, rose by 86 percent.
The state had increased the tax significantly to compensate for lost revenue.
In the first year of the war, the high energy income had ensured that Russia was able to increase both warfare and social spending at home.
The declining income from raw materials is now making the situation for the Kremlin more complex.
Most recently, the Ministry of Finance had already established contact with large Russian corporations and advertised a "one-time voluntary" contribution from the companies to finance the state budget.
There was talk of a total of around four billion dollars.
The warnings from billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who is close to the Kremlin, also made headlines.
At an economic forum in Siberia, he warned that the country could run out of money as early as next year.
beb
