Group of Seven leaders this weekend prepared a plan to cap the price of Russian oil, another effort to weaken the keystone of Russia’s financial durability: oil money.

Why it matters: The G7’s continued escalation is a tacit admission that efforts to isolate Russia economically have been insufficient to cut the flow of cash helping to finance President Vladimir Putin’s war.

Despite some efforts to curtail purchases of Russian energy exports, soaring oil and gas prices — themselves, a reaction to the invasion — have poured funds into Russian state coffers.

Russia’s current account surplus — the broadest measure of a country’s international trade — tripled to more than $110 billion so far this year, putting it on track for record.
The income boom has propped up the country’s currency and stabilized inflation. That, in turn, allowed the central bank to scale back the emergency interest rate hikes it implemented at the beginning of the war.