Page 22 - RusRPTJan23

The November IEA data show that the EU still accounted for nearly 30% of Russia's total oil exports (including both crude and petroleum products) in November (Chart 1), the month before the embargo kicked in, with other/unspecified destinations indicated for 23% of all cargoes. But out of 1.1mn b/d of crude exports to Europe, only 330 kb/d were seaborne volumes, with deliveries via Druzhba pipeline (590 kb/d) exceeding the former. After 5 December, under the terms of the EU oil embargo, only around 350 kb/d of Druzhba deliveries (to Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) and seaborne exports to Bulgaria are allowed. Germany and Poland also used to import Russian oil via Druzhba but have voluntarily chosen to halt their purchases at the end of this year.
2.13 Putin & government’s popularity
If anything, support and trust in Russian President Vladimir Putin has increased since the war in Ukraine started at the end of February.
Putin’s personal popularity ranking stood at 83% in March (chart) with 15% unfavourable of the president and 2% unsure, and stayed at that level until August when things started to go wrong with the campaign in Ukraine.
His popularity fell to 77% (21%, 2%) in September, according to the Levada Centre, after Ukraine’s spectacular Kharkiv counter offensive began but recovered to 79% in October and November to end the year in December at 81% (17%, 2%).
Overall, Putin has been enjoying the same “patriotic bump” that lifted his ratings following the annexation of the Crimea in 2014. During the previous two years of 2020 and 2021 his ratings wavered between 61% and 69% but only crossed into the 70%-plus range as the rhetoric with the West went up a notch at the start of the crisis at the beginning of 2022.
22 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com