Moscow is maintaining control over its crude shipments and progressively increasing the prices, the outlet says © Getty Images / R2-D2

Russia’s monthly revenues from oil exports are now higher than before the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine, indicating that Western sanctions on the sector have failed, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Moscow’s income from crude sales almost doubled from April to October, despite international pressure and widesp

Data from Indian customs shows that the price paid for Russian oil averaged $72 a barrel this year by the time it reached the Asian country, which is $12 higher than the price initially declared at the point of export in Russia.

Russia has shipped nearly 3.5 million barrels of crude a day this year, with around $11 billion going into a delivery spread, the outlet said.

“Some of that will represent legitimate shipping costs, but almost all of it goes through anonymous traders or unknown shipping companies,” Bloomberg wrote.

“The shadow fleet and alternatives to Western maritime insurance are not new. Iran has used them for years. Now that a massive producer like Russia is using them, they have become more mainstream,” according to Eddie Fishman, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, who has helped draw up US sanctions on Iran and Russia.

An advocate for stricter measures, he admitted that alternatives to Western services will eventually become a structural feature of the global oil trade.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section