Agreement between Moscow and Washington on diesel: signing of contracts will take place “in the coming days”, according to Russia

Russia said on Wednesday that it expected the signing “in the coming days” of the first contracts for the export of Russian diesel to the markets, after the agreement between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump announced last week.

“Everything will be done in the next few days,” declared Kremlin advisor for international economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev, quoted by Russian news agencies. “We are in very close contact, every hour, with the American side, and everything is moving very quickly,” he added, affirming that Moscow and Washington are trying to “resolve many logistical issues to implement all of this quickly and efficiently.”

“Deliveries will be made to global markets”

The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of energy, Alexandre Novak, confirmed for his part that “the development of supply contracts” is currently taking place “at the level of ministries and companies” of the two countries. “Deliveries will be made to world markets, including directly to the United States,” declared Alexandre Novak, according to whom Russia will ultimately be able to deliver “a level of 3 to 3.5 million tonnes, which is the level that Russia supplied to world markets before” the Western sanctions taken against it.

According to him, this will help bring down prices, which have been experiencing a global surge since the start of the Israeli-American war in the Middle East. Alexandre Novak welcomed that this agreement represents “additional tax revenues for the Russian budget” and “investment opportunities”, while Russian spending has exploded in the military field since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The US-Russian diesel agreement had been criticized by Europeans and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who deemed it “weak” and “unworthy”. Donald Trump assured him that he had “made the right choice for the American people”. His administration criticized the “hypocrisy” of European countries, which themselves have continued to purchase massive quantities of Russian hydrocarbons since 2022 despite sanctions.