OREANDA-NEWS   The first deputy head of the Federal Customs Service (FCS) of Russia Ruslan Davydov estimated the timing of the adaptation of exporters to oil sanctions — in his opinion, the restructuring will take no more than two to three months, RIA Novosti writes.

His assessment is based on Russia's experience of adapting to the Western restrictions imposed on other groups of goods in the spring — then it took about two to three months for domestic companies to overcome difficulties in calculations and logistics. Davydov believes that in the case of oil and petroleum products, the process can go even faster, since the demand of the world market for these products is higher.

The first deputy head of the Federal Customs Service admitted that in December, after the introduction of new restrictions, there was a "significant decrease" in exports of oil, petroleum products and gas. However, he recalled that the spring recession was followed by a gradual recovery of energy supplies, and since July a systematic growth of 1.5-2 percent per month has begun — the same thing awaits Russia in the coming months.

According to him, attempts by Western countries to limit the Russian supply of hydrocarbons on the markets are equivalent to shooting yourself "in the foot, or right in the head." Davydov also noted that domestic fuel probably continues to flow to "unfriendly" countries even after the introduction of sanctions.

In addition, the representative of the Federal Customs Service said that the US share in Russia's foreign trade at the end of the year fell below two percent, and the volume of trade between the two countries has more than halved. He also noted a significant decline in trade volumes with the European Union (EU) — trade turnover with some states also fell by half.