A medic holds a dead child after airstrikes in the rebel held Karam Houmid neighborhood in Aleppo on October 4. Russian warplanes have been pounding Aleppo's rebel-held districts. On October 17, dozens of civilians including twelve members of the same family were killed in strikes in Aleppo, a rights group said. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

Three-Fourths of Russian Oil Sold to Europe

On October 20, the Council of the European Union will consider its strategy toward the Russian Federation. Following the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Europe faces a genuine challenge: to recognize Russian aggression against Ukraine for what it is, and to provide truly effective measures to stop Moscow.

The EU’s most powerful lever is its energy imports, which are to be considered as part of the new EU strategy. By importing energy from Russia, the EU is allowing the Kremlin to continue its aggression against Ukraine and Syria and to spread fear and uncertainty in European societies.

Russian energy exports feed Russian aggression. Two-thirds of Russian export revenues come from the sale of energy raw materials—oil and its refinery products, natural gas, coal, and electricity—and the EU-28 is their major importer. Three-fourths of Russian oil is sold to Europe.

Russia supplies Europe with energy, while Europe supplies Russia with money that swells the budget of the Russian Federation. By comparison, the export of Russian high tech military products reached a peak of $14.5 billion in 2015—that is, only 4.2 percent of total export revenues. Oil products brought Russia almost eleven times more than the export of these defense industry products.

Russia provides nearly 30 percent of European oil imports, far more than other petroleum exporters like Norway and Nigeria. That oil is consumed by a wide variety of European countries.

Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland are the major importers of Russian oil and oil products. The Russian state company Rosneft has gradually penetrated the German oil processing market, having bought over the shares of Venezuelan PdVSA, as well as of the French company Total in the east of Germany.