Putin shuts off the data tap: Russian energy exports go secret to evade Western sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday (28 September 2026) further restricting the disclosure of data on energy and petroleum products, in a declared effort to counter sanctions from the United States and Western countries, as Reuters reports.

The decree bans the publication — including through the media — of data sets on the nature, price, sellers, buyers, routes and destinations of Russian energy exports; the publication of customs data is also restricted. Disclosure is permitted only if the company involved in the transaction publishes the data itself. The government has been given 10 days to specify exactly which product codes fall under the ban.

It is not the first time Moscow has shut off the information tap: Russia had already classified the publication of oil production data after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and tightened secrecy further after the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to Reuters, the new decree extends this policy to refinery and logistics data, linking it directly to sanctions enforcement — the fewer details Western governments can verify, the harder it becomes to enforce the oil price cap.

The context makes the move even more significant: Ukrainian drone strikes keep hitting Russian refineries, and according to International Energy Agency figures, Russian refining output fell to about 3.8 million barrels a day in June — roughly 30% less than a year earlier and the lowest level in more than two decades — while gasoline production fell by about 20% and diesel by about 30%.

Analysts see the decree as part of the Kremlin’s strategy to darken its own energy market as much as possible, at a time when oil and gas revenues are falling and refineries are paying the cost of the war on Russian territory.