On Sunday, February 5, two months after the European Union banned most crude oil from Russia, the bloc will extend the embargo to Russian diesel and gasoline supplies. As a result, Moscow will lose more than half of the sales markets for its oil and petroleum products that it had in 2021 in natural terms.

 This is reported by The New York Times.

 The EU embargo is aimed at further suppressing the Russian energy business, cutting it off from the most important export market. The sale of oil products is crucial for financing the country's budget and, ultimately, its war in Ukraine. The West hopes to gradually reduce this source of money for the Kremlin.

 "Russia has lost its most important client," said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

 As noted in the publication, although Moscow has so far managed to find new oil buyers in India, Turkey and other countries, such tactics may have limits. And Russia may have a harder time convincing India, which has increased its purchases of Russian oil, to do the same for petroleum products where it is self-sufficient.

 "Russia cannot simply supply diesel to Asia as it has done with oil," said Richard Bronze, head of geopolitics at research firm Energy Aspects.

 To sell oil to a shrinking number of markets, Russian companies have given huge discounts to offset the extra costs of longer delivery distances and to compete with established suppliers to Asian markets such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

 In addition, the European Union and the G7 countries will seek to limit the amount of revenue Russia can earn from its refined products by setting a price ceiling, as they did in December for Russian oil. Western shippers and insurers will be allowed to deal only with those Russian oil products that are sold at set prices that have not yet been announced.

 While Russian exports held up better than analysts expected in 2022, low prices began to cut into its revenues late in the year. According to the International Energy Agency, in December Russia earned about $12.6 billion from oil, which is about 24% less than a year earlier