Russia's crude oil and oil products exports fell 350,000 barrels per day last year, though revenue from its exports rose 2% or $3.8 billion, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

The Russian government relies mainly on profits from the export of raw materials, particularly oil, making sanctions against this industry an effective tool, according to the RBC-Ukraine article How much Putin pays for the war in Ukraine as the West adds pressure on Russia's economy.

Russia is prepared to study U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's peace initiatives on Ukraine when he takes office next week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Lavrov cautioned that Trump's comments on the war - which he previously said he could end within 24 hours of entering the White House - were being made before his inauguration,

Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump now concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise - to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House.

Before the conflict , Russia had demanded a legal guarantee that Ukraine be denied NATO entry, knowing the alliance has never excluded pote