Russia will have funding to wage its war - expert

Judging by the examples of North Korea and Iran, Russia, unfortunately, will have the funding to continue its war.

Ukrainian investment banker Serhiy Fursa said this in a commentary to Ukrinform.

"They (Russians - ed.) will still have the resources. Iran has been under sanctions for 40 years, but it has the resources to produce kamikaze drones and terrorize Israel," the investment banker said.

He clarified that "this year Russia has fewer resources than the previous year. The intensity of the fighting and the capacity are also much lower. So, next year they will have even fewer resources, but they will still have them."

In the investment banker's opinion, for sanctions against Russia to be fully effective, India and China should join them.

"Unfortunately, this will never happen, so we just need to tighten control so that the Kremlin has fewer opportunities to circumvent sanctions," Fursa emphasized.

China, India, and African countries support the Russian economy by actively buying oil and oil products.

Russia continues to generate revenue through oil exports. Russian exports amounted to 8.3 million barrels of oil per day year to date, the highest level since April 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). China was the largest buyer (43% of Russian crude oil exports), followed by India (36%), the EU (8%) and Türkiye (3%).

As reported, Chinese exports to Russia in the first five months of 2023 increased by 75.6% compared to the same period last year and reached $42.9 billion. Imports increased by 20.4% to $50.9 billion.