Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Tatiana Mitrova, a global fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, to discuss how the latest series of drone attacks and the Middle East conflict have affected the Russian energy industry, and whether they amount to a lethal blow to Putin’s war chest.
Following waves of Ukrainian attacks against energy infrastructure in 2024 and 2025, Russia managed to recover quickly. But the most recent drone strikes on Russian refineries were more calculated and impactful. Are they enough to finally topple the goliath of Russian oil revenues that has fed the Russian war machine? What tools does the Kremlin have to mitigate the looming fuel crisis? Will gasoline shortages prove to be the last straw that pushes the Russian public to oppose the war?