Russia's crude oil production fell in May to its lowest level in a year, with Ukraine's record-setting drone campaign against oil infrastructure playing a major role, Bloomberg reported. The decline, now running for half a year, cuts into the mineral extraction tax — the main channel through which oil fills the federal budget that finances the war, the Russian-language Moscow Times noted.

Output slides for half a year, far below the OPEC+ quota

Russia averaged 9.009 million barrels of crude a day in May, OPEC's monthly report shows. Daily output last peaked in November at 9.38 million barrels and has shrunk every month since, losing roughly 370,000 barrels, the Moscow Times wrote. The May figure sits 690,000 barrels a day short of what the OPEC+ deal obliges Russia to pump, Bloomberg calculated. The data excludes condensate, and April's level was revised slightly lower.

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All three Rosneft Samara refineries now offline or reduced as drones halt Kuibyshevsky operations yesterday

The Ukrainian strikes have been disabling oil storage and transportation capacity. That shortage, combined with underinvestment, reduces the volume of crude Russia extracts. Bloomberg observed that while the latest monthly drop marks a slowdown against previous months, it will likely keep weighing on oil markets. Oil prices stay elevated amid the continuing Middle East conflict, and Russia ranks among the world's three biggest crude producers whose barrels bypass the Strait of Hormuz, shut in practice since the Iran war erupted.

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Russia’s fuel crisis jumps from 15 to 25 regions in five days—plus six occupied Ukrainian areas

A record month of strikes crushes refining

Ukraine sharply intensified its May campaign against Russian oil sites, logging at least 31 strikes on refineries, seaborne export terminals, and pipelines, Bloomberg counted — the highest monthly count since the full-scale invasion, as Kyiv works to cut the Kremlin's income from elevated crude prices. Because most strikes targeted fuel-producing facilities, Russian refining collapsed to its 2009 level in May. So far this month, Russia's refining runs have fallen to a two-decade low, EA Analytics, part of consultancy Energy Aspects, estimates.

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Russian crude reaches the sea through tunnels under a mountain ridge—and Ukraine hit the storage end near Novorossiysk

Exports rise while the budget's tax base shrinks

The gasoline shortage behind the fuel crisis in a number of Russian regions led producers to redirect more crude to export markets. The Baltic and Black Sea ports damaged in the first two months of spring have been repaired. Seaborne crude exports averaged 3.64 million barrels a day over the four weeks ending 31 May, Bloomberg's tanker-tracking data show. That compares with 3.17 million barrels daily over the four-week stretch to 17 April, when Ukrainian forces actively bombed ports and export terminals.

The Moscow Times notes that the export shift allows companies and intermediaries who retain significant sums from sales abroad to raise their incomes. The federal budget that pays for the war, though, is filled above all by the mineral extraction tax, so falling production hits government revenue directly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing Russia to seize the property and bank balances of citizens living abroad before any court ruling, the Moscow Times reported. The legislation turns a single formal charge into an immediate asset freeze in absentia against exiled Kremlin critics. It takes effect on 1 September 2026.

Several hundred thousand Russians left the country after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

What the law does

The amendments to Russia's Code of Administrative Offenses cover "administrative offenses against the interests of the Russian Federation." The seizure is framed as a "precautionary measure," not a sentence. Qualifying offenses include "discrediting" the Russian army, calls for sanctions against Russia, and "propaganda of Nazi symbols." They also cover producing and distributing "extremist materials" and non-payment of fines for any of these acts.

The value of property arrested, including bank account balances, is not capped at the underlying fine. Russian outlet Meduza noted that courts had previously fined people abroad under those administrative articles. Pre-trial seizure as a precautionary measure had never been available before.

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How it differs from the 2024 confiscation law

The legislation extends the post-conviction asset-confiscation regime that Putin signed in February 2024. That earlier law let Russia seize the assets of those convicted of spreading "deliberately false information" about the army and other offenses. The new law moves the seizure earlier, before any verdict.

It is aimed squarely at Russians who fled after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Moscow Times said the legislation "hands the government a new tool to punish Kremlin critics living abroad, including exiled journalists and activists."

If a Russian abroad cannot be notified of charges, the court must appoint a defense lawyer. Legal fees are reimbursed from the federal budget only if the case is dropped. The document was published on Russia's official legal information portal on 10 June 2026.

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A "preventive" measure aimed at exiled critics

The bill's explanatory note cited "bright examples" of relocants conducting "activity directed against the interests of Russia." It argued for applying "measures of preventive influence" to such citizens. The authors stated the law will help "stop" calls to violate Russia's territorial integrity and constitutional order. In Russian official usage, that language covers the Kremlin's claim over occupied Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. 

From Tatarstan to Putin's desk

Lawmakers from the Russian republic of Tatarstan first proposed the bill in October 2024. The State Duma — Russia's lower house of parliament — passed it late in May 2026. State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin praised the bill as a cover for Russian forces deployed in Ukraine. Russian state news agency TASS reported that the amendments make individuals abroad newly liable for abusing media freedom, inciting hatred, calls to violate Russia's territorial integrity, and discrediting the armed forces.

Key developments on June 9:

• Ukraine targets key Crimea crossing in broader day of strikes on Russian military logistics;
• Russia's Starlink rival loses one of its first operational satellites, Russian media reports;
• Ukraine strikes ammo depot in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, confirms fuel tank destruction near Mariupol;

Russia's Federal Tax Service has pushed regional governments to consider higher taxes on residents and businesses as local budgets sink to record deficits, The Moscow Times reported. The move follows President Vladimir Putin's drive to shrink regional shortfalls, and it shows the financial strain Russia's war against Ukraine is placing on its provinces. Independent analysts expect the squeeze to deepen as the economy slows.

Tax service tells regions to find more money

The Federal Tax Service (FNS) instructed regional authorities to work out where they could raise taxes, The Moscow Times reported, citing RBC. The recommendations answered Putin's directive to cut regional deficits, and governors had to submit their proposals in early June.

The advice told regions to:

• expand the list of real estate taxed at cadastral, or market, value;
• raise transport-tax rates to the maximum;
• revise the benefits and rates on land tax and personal property tax.

To collect more, regions were also told to inventory real estate and to look for land used off-purpose, where the tax can rise several times over.

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Russian refining output fell 9.2% in April as Ukrainian drone strikes hit fuel plants

A record hole in regional finances

Last year, Russia's regions closed with a combined deficit of 1.538 trillion rubles ($20.8 billion). The gap grew fivefold from 2024 and almost eightfold from 2023. Four regions ran deficits above 30% of their own revenue — Kemerovo, Vologda, Arkhangelsk, and Tyumen oblasts — and six more topped 25%.

Profit-tax revenue fell in 55 regions. It collapsed by half in the Komi Republic, dropped 40% in Orenburg Oblast, and fell 39% in Yamalo-Nenets. Overall, regions collected 9% less profit tax than in 2024 and 13% less than in 2023, according to the rating agency ACRA. The pattern fits a war economy that has turned predatory toward once-wealthy provinces.

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Russia’s four-month budget deficit hit $75.4 billion — 50% above what Moscow planned for entire year

Reserves drained, debt climbing

To cover the shortfalls, regional governments spent every third ruble of their bank reserves — 1 trillion of 2.9 trillion rubles ($13.9 billion of $40 billion). They financed the rest with borrowing that pushed combined regional debt to 3.5 trillion rubles ($48.6 billion), ACRA reported — the highest in 15 years by Expert RA's earlier count. Expert RA projected the slowdown will continue this year, dragging revenues lower and lifting both the deficit and the debt burden.

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$7 billion lost from Russia’s war economy this year through Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” on oil sector – Zelenskyy

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov earlier projected the regional gap could widen to 1.9 trillion rubles ($26.4 billion) in 2026. The crunch mirrors a federal budget that has run far ahead of plan as Ukrainian strikes cut into Russian refineries and oil income.

Moscow raised VAT in January and prepared a windfall levy on big business, both breaking Putin's 2024 pledge of no tax changes before 2030. Smaller firms have been squeezed first even as the Kremlin's own spending keeps climbing

Members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's sanctioned inner circle are still flying Western-built luxury business jets, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). A network of European brokers buys the aircraft, registers them in countries that ignore sanctions, and then sends them to Russia. Western enforcement, meanwhile, has gone slack.

Sanctioned, but still flying Western jets

A $75 million Bombardier Global 7500 sits at Moscow's Vnukovo airport. The Canadian-built jet sells to the global super-rich, and close Putin allies fly aircraft like it. WSJ reviewed records from an aviation-data firm, import filings, and flight-tracker logs to map the pattern.

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Sergei Chemezov runs Rostec, Russia's state defense conglomerate, and has known Putin since their KGB days in East Germany. He has flown a Bombardier to Dubai, Türkiye, and Southeast Asia. Flightradar24 tracked roughly six of his UAE flights between October 2025 and January 2026. In Dubai, he holds a property fronting its own private beach on the Palm Jumeirah, the emirate's palm-shaped artificial island, Radio Free Europe reported earlier. Leaked financial files known as the Pandora Papers once tied him to estates in Spain.

The same circle, the same perks

Arkady Rotenberg, a boyhood judo partner of Putin's in St. Petersburg, built a fortune on state contracts. International sanctions have targeted him since Russia seized Crimea in 2014. He gained access to two Bombardier Global jets in late 2022. Flightradar24 shows them flying to Azerbaijan and the UAE.

Igor Kesaev made his money in tobacco and alcohol, then moved into retail and weapons. Forbes puts his fortune at $4.8 billion. The US and the EU blacklisted him after the invasion for helping arm Russia's military. In 2023, he brought in a jet-black Bombardier Global Express XRS, according to Ch-Aviation and Import Genius records.

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Until the all-out war, much of Russia's elite parked their jets with European management firms in tax havens like Switzerland and Luxembourg. The war cost them those deals, and sometimes the planes themselves. They gave up London, the French Riviera, and the Swiss chalets, and now head to the UAE, Türkiye, and Azerbaijan.

How the jets reach Russia

These days, sanctioned Russians reach Western aircraft by going through middlemen and broker firms. European dealers buy Bombardier and Gulfstream aircraft secondhand. They register them in places like the UAE, Oman, Kazakhstan, and South Africa, then fly them to Russia. Similar shadow schemes were tracked before.

The planes moved through a Vienna firm, Avcon, and its subsidiaries before landing in Russian hands. Chemezov's jet started out registered in Bermuda under Avcon's management. A firm called Tarp Aviation later moved it onto Russia's registry. A separate Vienna-based fiduciary, SecuTrust, holds shares in both Avcon and Tarp.