A rivalry at the heart of Russia’s oil trade is threatening the crucial operations the Kremlin relies on to fund its war in Ukraine, just as the US cranks up the pressure on Moscow.
The two players who are estimated to move the vast majority of the state-owned Rosneft PJSC’s crude have been trying to expose each other’s Russian links in a bid to trigger Western sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter and documents seen by Bloomberg News.