JAKARTA - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia plans to buy fuel from abroad to stabilize the domestic market, a very rare move for a country that only imported large amounts of energy resources in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Peskov said Moscow was holding talks on the possibility of importing fuel with several countries.
"If an agreement is reached on imports at an acceptable price, then it will happen. This will be another step towards stabilizing the market and reducing the surge in demand," he said, launching Anadolu (30/6).
The official stressed that a package of measures to stabilize the fuel market was being discussed by a government commission led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak after a meeting led by President Vladimir Putin on Sunday.
He declined to comment on media reports that several Russian oil refineries were allowed to produce fuel that meets Euro-5 specifications using Euro-3 standards, and that authorities were considering lowering the fuel quality requirements further to Euro-2.
Peskov directed questions about the measures being discussed to the government, saying that Novak oversees the issue daily.
When asked which countries Russia had contacted regarding the potential import of fuel, Peskov refused to provide details.
"For understandable reasons, we will not discuss it," he said.
It is known that the last large-scale import of gasoline into Russia was seen in the 1990s, when the country imported more than 2 million metric tons annually to overcome domestic shortages, according to UN data.
In the following decade, imports became sporadic, small, and mostly limited to premium-grade gasoline.
As previously reported, President Vladimir Putin admitted that the Ukrainian attack affected Russia's fuel supply, but it had not reached a critical stage.
In an interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday, President Putin admitted there was a "certain lack of fuel" after repeated Ukrainian attacks.
Most recently, Ukraine reportedly launched an attack on a Russian oil refinery facility last weekend.
Kyiv called the attack a just retaliation for the attacks that Russia has carried out almost daily against Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure since the February 2022 attack.
"Regarding attacks on critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course, attacks on our infrastructure facilities cause problems, that's clear," President Putin said, launching Al Arabiya from AFP.
"Currently we are observing certain deficiencies, but not critical," he said.
Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Ukraine attacked two Russian oil refineries in Krasnodar and Yaroslavl regions on Saturday night, as Kyiv increased pressure on Russia's fuel supplies with its fleet of drones, Al Arabiya reported from Reuters.
Kyiv's increasingly frequent drone attacks have caused acute fuel shortages in parts of Russia, one of the world's largest oil producers, with queues and rationing seen at gas stations.
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