Millions of barrels of Russian oil stored on tankers at sea could still provide Indian refiners with a quick and cheap solution, provided they get the nod from New Delhi.

Deliveries of Russian crude to Chinese ports rose to 2.09 million barrels a day in the first 18 days of February, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. The increase — from 1.72 million barrels a day in the whole of January and 1.39 million in December — has more than offset a drop from India.

Rosatom later reported that in meetings on Monday, Likhachev also held talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić "during which they discussed expanding cooperation in nuclear energy, attracting Serbian companies to Rosatom's international projects, and training Serbian applicants in nuclear fields at Russian universities".  

Hungary has announced that it will block adoption of the EU's 20th sanctions package against Russia.

Against a backdrop of intensifying Western economic coercion, renewed attempts to weaponize trade, the slowdown in Russia–China bilateral trade, and the U.S.-India oil narrative curbing India’s imports of Russian energy, as well as visible stress fractures in the global energy system, the Putin-Xi dialogue emerged as a crucial strategic calibration for Russia and China.

The 15.75 Bcm/year-capacity European string of TurkStream remains the sole pipeline route for Russian gas supplies to Europe after Ukraine halted Russian gas transit at the start of 2025, following the expiry of its five-year transit agreement with Moscow at the end of 2024.

Paks has four VVER-440 units, commissioned in the 1980s, and two new VVER-1200 units are being built by Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of the Russian Rosatom.

The eight OPEC+ countries, which previously announced additional voluntary adjustments in April and November 2023, namely Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman met virtually on 1 February 2026, to review global market conditions and outlook.

Indian stocks and the rupee rallied on Trump’s remarks on Tuesday, but halting Russian oil purchases in particular would be a major concession for the Modi government, which has repeatedly insisted that buying crude wherever it wants is a matter of “strategic autonomy”.

The decline was due to lower crude prices and a stronger rouble. Oil and gas revenues are crucial for Russia's state budget, which ran a deficit of 5.6 trillion roubles or 2.6% of gross domestic product in 2025.

Agreements were reached to boost supply volumes via the Power of Siberia pipeline from 38 bcm per year to 44 bcm per year and to increase supply volumes via the Far Eastern route from 10 bcm per year to 12 bcm per year.

Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency, said the purpose of the nuclear power station on the moon would be "long-term power supply to consumers (moon rovers, observatory) of the Russian Lunar programme, as well as infrastructure facilities of the International Lunar Research Station (including facilities of foreign partners)".

The eight participating countries reiterated that the 1.65 million barrels per day may be returned in part or in full subject to evolving market conditions and in a gradual manner.

Energy security is at the core of its evolving ties, as Hungary protects its national interest. Hungary remains the EU member state most honest about its energy realities.

Russia has remained China's largest crude supplier, but those flows fell to 2 million b/d (83.15 million metric tons) in the first 10 months of 2025, down 7.7% year over year, according to data from China's General Administration of Customs.