{"id":1435819,"date":"2026-09-04T18:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/sanctions-pressure-on-the-kremlin-putin-gave-china-27-billion-thanks-to-oil-discounts\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:35:13","slug":"sanctions-pressure-on-the-kremlin-putin-gave-china-27-billion-thanks-to-oil-discounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/sanctions-pressure-on-the-kremlin-putin-gave-china-27-billion-thanks-to-oil-discounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctions pressure on the Kremlin: Putin \u201cgave\u201d China $27 billion thanks to oil discounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

China has received about $27 billion in economic benefits from purchasing Russian oil at a discount since 2022. After the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine and the introduction of Western sanctions, Russian raw materials have become a cheaper alternative to oil from other countries for Beijing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is reported by The Moscow Times<\/a> .<\/p>\n

According to Igor Sechin, head of Russian oil company Rosneft, the calculation covers the period from 2022, when Russian oil companies began to reorient a significant part of exports from Europe to Asian markets. China became the largest buyer of Russian oil and was able to buy raw materials cheaper than alternative supplies.<\/p>\n

The share of Russian oil in Chinese imports has reached a record 27%. The total volume of supplies has exceeded 100 million tons per year, and in the first 7 months of 2026, about 67 million tons of Russian oil were delivered to China, according to Sechin.<\/p>\n

“Due to the higher efficiency of purchasing Russian oil compared to the Middle Eastern alternative, the total economic effect received by China starting in 2022 is, according to our estimate, $27 billion,” said the head of Rosneft.<\/p>\n

China’s economy is not only related to the lower price of Russian raw materials. After the introduction of sanctions and restrictions, its exports to Asia are accompanied by additional logistical and sanction risks, which also affect the final cost of supply.<\/p>\n

According to Argus Media, in late August, Russian Urals crude was selling at a discount of about $26-27 per barrel to Brent at Russian ports. Part of this difference is due to the costs and profits of carriers that deliver Russian oil to Asian ports, including using the so-called “shadow fleet.”<\/p>\n

At the same time, even taking into account transportation costs, Russian raw materials remain cheaper for Chinese buyers than oil from a number of other suppliers.<\/p>\n

The size of the discount varied depending on the situation on the global oil market and the increasing sanctions pressure. According to estimates by the Gaidar Institute, in the summer of 2022, Russian oil was sold to Chinese buyers at a maximum discount of up to 16% compared to prices from other suppliers.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2023, the average discount had shrunk to around 5% relative to Brent, and in 2024 it had almost disappeared. In 2025, discounts began to increase again: in Q1 they were around 2.8%, in Q2 they were 6.3%, and after the introduction of sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil they could reach 8.3%.<\/p>\n

Thus, Western sanctions pressure aimed at limiting Russia’s oil export revenues has simultaneously given its largest Asian buyers the opportunity to demand lower prices. China has gained access to large volumes of Russian raw materials at a discount and has become one of the main beneficiaries of this situation.<\/p>\n

Recall that against the backdrop of Russia’s weakening position due to the war against Ukraine , China is increasing its influence on Moscow<\/a> . Beijing has benefited from the war, in particular through access to cheap Russian oil and the Russian market. Analysts believe that Putin is effectively forced to play the role of China’s junior partner.<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , X<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China has received about $27 billion in economic benefits from purchasing Russian oil at a discount since 2022. After the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine and the introduction of Western sanctions, Russian raw materials have become a cheaper alternative to oil from other countries for Beijing. This is reported by The Moscow Times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1398522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76870,76871,76872,76875],"class_list":["post-1435819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-other-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1435819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1398522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1435819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1435819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}