I'm John Batchel with Michael Bernstein, my guide on once upon a time the simple, straightforward sanctions

on Russia because it was aggression towards Ukraine. Now those sanctions may or may not be on, but we have

more than Ukraine. We have the war in Iran, the war in Lebanon, the war in Gaza, and the threat of

an eruption in the Red Sea by the Houthis against a tanker traffic.

Michael, I want to start with Moscow here because Ukraine seems the war that nobody remembers sometimes.

Moscow has been using the shadow fleet, and these last weeks of elevated oil prices, it's been using that

extra money to close the budget gap. Is that still happening? It was happening during March. It was

very successful during early April. But on April the 11th, the United States did not renew its license to lift the sanctions

from two major Russian oil exporting companies.

And already warned Chinese banks not to process payments because it is secondary sanctions.

It's not primary sanctions on Russian oil, which are hard to enforce, but it is secondary sanctions. It's not primary sanctions on Russian oil, which are hard to enforce,

but it is secondary sanctions on the buyers of Russian oil, especially in China and India.

And the Chinese banks, since they are connected with the Federal Reserve

in the United States financial system through the voluminous trade between the United States and China,

the Chinese banks are those that will enforce these sanctions.

Russian oil, Russia benefited a lot from, of course, two things.

One was the increase in the price of oil during March and early April of now,

and Russia benefited that discounts. The discounts for Russian oil for China and India were

$27, $28 per barrel, and they almost dissipated.

And Russian oil sold very well, especially on the spot market,

because Russian oil was stuck at sea in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific,

130 to 140 million barrels.

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