"God was on the side of the nation that had the oil." --Prof. Wakimura, Tokyo Imperial University
Russia is one of the world's largest producers of petroleum, natural gas, and coal.
In Europe, despite decades of taxes on hydrocarbons, subsidies for green energy and net zero plans, hydrocarbons still supply 70% of EU energy. And Russia supplies the lion's share of this: 40% of EU gas, over 25% of their crude oil and nearly half of their coal comes from Russia.
Russia is also a big exporter of energy-dependent metals such as iron, steel and aluminium, and is the world's third biggest producer of gold, the money for troubled times.