Russia’s Novak: Russian Companies in Talks With Buyers on Diesel Sales

The signal here is less the diesel talks themselves than who is doing the talking: a deputy prime minister publicly flagging commercial negotiations suggests the state is comfortable advertising that buyer demand persists despite the pressure on Russian fuel exports. That matters most for the countries still willing to take those barrels and for the shipping and insurance chains that enable them. Whether the talks convert into named buyers, or stay deliberately vague, is the open question worth watching.