Higher oil export volumes, coupled with rising gas prices, will boost Russia’s earnings from energy exports to $337.5 billion this year, a 38% rise on 2021, according to an economy ministry document seen by Reuters. The jump in revenues, if it materialises, will help shore up Russia’s economy in the face of waves of Western sanctions. It will provide President Vladimir Putin with cash to fund military spending or to boost wages and pensions at a time when the economy has fallen into recession and inflation is eroding living standards. But the boom in energy earnings only partly compensates for the damage from sanctions to the economy overall, analysts said. “The impact of sanctions on Russia’s economy is very uneven. In some sectors, it has been […]