For all its efforts to diversify the economy, Russia keeps coming back to oil and gas.
The Finance Ministry is considering a tax increase for crude producers and for gas giant Gazprom PJSC that would bring in $5 billion to $6 billion next year, a government official said on August 25, asking not to be identified as the proposal isn’t yet public. Vedomosti newspaper reported earlier that oil-extraction taxes might rise by more than $3 billion a year through the end of the decade.
