Russia's oil and gas budget revenue falls by a third year-on-year in June

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's oil and gas revenue fell 33.7% year-on-year in June to 494.8 billion roubles ($6.29 billion), its lowest since January 2023, finance ministry data showed on Thursday, amid weak oil prices and a strengthening rouble.

Oil and gas revenue has been the most important source of cash for the Kremlin, accounting for about a quarter of total federal budget proceeds.

In addition to dropping by a third year-on-year, revenue also fell by 3.5% from May.

For the first half of the year, the revenue declined by almost 17% from the same period a year before, to 4.73 trillion roubles.

The decline in proceeds is painful for Russia, which has heavily increased defence and security spending since launching its military campaign in Ukraine, which it calls a special military operation, in February 2022.

Russia hiked state spending on national defence by a quarter in 2025 to 6.3% of gross domestic product, the highest level since the Cold War. Defence spending accounts for 32% of total 2025 federal budget expenditure.

The finance ministry had initially planned to earn 10.94 trillion roubles from oil and gas sales this year, but due to falling oil prices it revised that expectation down to 8.32 trillion roubles.

Oil and gas revenue reached 11.13 trillion roubles last year.

($1 = 78.7000 roubles)

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Susan Fenton and Jan Harvey)