Russian oil sales have gone up — not down — after massive sanctions from the West

Russian oil sales have gone up — not down — after massive sanctions from the West

The US, UK, and European Union all slapped Russia's energy sector with historic sanctions in hopes of curbing the country's invasion of Ukraine. Despite those moves, Russia is selling more oil and gas today than it did before the war began. The Russian government expects to rake in roughly $9.6 billion from energy sales in April, according to estimates from the country's . The sum beat Russia's initial projections largely due to soaring prices for crude oil and natural gas. Russia is now projected to earn about $321 billion from energy exports in 2022, , up more than a third from 2021. The projections fly in the face of massive sanctions imposed last month by the West. The US government placed , while the UK announced plans to . The EU while it continues to mull a ban on the country's crude. The measures, announced within a short span of each other, aimed to cut off Russia's access to energy-export revenues and cripple its economy enough to end the war. Yet Russia still has enough buyers to keep the energy sector afloat and its trade income strong. India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian oil since the