John C. K. Daly
Russia’s energy industry is experiencing difficulties caused by rising sanctions, declining exports, and Ukrainian drone and missile assaults on infrastructure, in turn creating challenges for domestic electricity generation (see EDM, April 18, October 16, November 13, 2024, February 27). Two months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded an update of the “Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2035” that was approved in 2020 to address these problems. He also demanded that the “horizon” of planning be updated and extended to 2050 (TASS, April 14, 2022). Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev stated in February that this update would be delivered by the end of March (Russian Energy Ministry, June 9, 2020; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 16). The document defined the strategic goals of the country’s fuel and energy complex to promote Russia’s socio-economic development and strengthen and preserve Russia’s presence in the global energy sector. The issues the Russian energy sector has been facing have made fulfilling these goals more and more problematic.
The energy shortages resulting from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are most deeply affecting Russia’s eastern regions, so much so that it is considering importing electricity from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a reversal of previous years during which it exported electricity there, most recently in 2023 (E²nergy, February 19). Last year Russia reduced its electricity exports to the PRC by three times its previous export rate. The volume of electricity exports from Russia to the PRC in 2024 amounted to less than one billion kilowatt hours (kWh), down from 3.1 billion kWh in 2023 (TASS, December 18, 2024). This decrease is attributed to a deficit in Russia’s Far East energy system (TASS, December 18, 2024; Interfax, February 6).
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