Three project 22220 icebreakers have already been built and are now operating in the Arctic – Arctic, Siberia and Ural. Construction of icebreakers Yakutia and Leningrad is now underway and a contract for the construction of Stalingrad has been signed.

Brent rose 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $73.45 a barrel, WTI were at $69.31 a barrel, up 15 cents, or 0.2%.

Russian gas is still being sold in significant volumes to Slovakia and Hungary, as well as to the Czech Republic which does not have a direct contract. Smaller volumes are going to Italy and Serbia.

The latest move targets a particularly vulnerable US link in the nuclear fuel cycle. Russia controls almost half the world’s capacity to separate the uranium isotopes needed in reactors, and last year supplied more than a quarter of the US’s enriched fuel.

Brent fell 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $71.93 a barrel, WTI declined 42 cents, or 0.6%, to $68.01.

Trade between the traditional allies have shot up five times in the past three years, according to trade ministry data, as India lapped up Russian crude oil while most others shunned its barrels following the invasion of Ukraine.

Brent fell 47 cents, or 0.6%, to $75.16 per barrel, WTI fell 55 cents or 0.8% to $71.81.

The IAEA has redesignated Rosatom Technical Academy (Rosatom Tech) as an IAEA Collaborating Centre, signing a new four-year agreement that expands the scope of their collaboration during the recent IAEA International Conference on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and their Applications.

"We are ready to supply [gas], though little depends on us here. This is why agreements on that should probably be made directly by consumers and the country ensuring transit," Novak said on the sidelines of an event in Sochi.

Brent ticked up 14 cents, or 0.19%, to $75.22 a barrel, WTI was at $71.6 a barrel, up 13 cents, or 0.18%.