Putins Kriegskasse wird durch große Rabatte geleert, die den Ölfluss aufrechterhalten

*From Bloomberg News reporter Julian Lee:*

Russia’s crude shipments are holding steady in the face of mounting pressures on its critical oil trade, but the steeper discounts that are keeping the barrels flowing have hammered the Kremlin’s revenues.

Volumes averaged 3.33 million barrels a day in the four weeks to Feb. 8, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That nudged up from the revised figure for the period to Feb. 1, but was down by about 540,000 barrels a day from the pre-Christmas peak.

The stable flows haven’t prevented a collapse in Moscow’s oil revenues, which fell to the lowest in more than five years in January.