Decree No. 686
Putin's 28 September 2026 decree restricting publication of Russian fuel and energy data.
Decree No. 686, signed by Vladimir Putin on 28 September 2026, took Russia's refinery output, export prices, buyers and tanker data out of public view just as refinery strikes and a diesel export U-turn made those figures matter.
Last refreshed: 12 October 2026
Timeline for Decree No. 686
Mentioned in: Novak lifts Russian diesel export curbs
Russia-Ukraine War 2026Mentioned in: Ukraine strikes Yandex AI data centres
Russia-Ukraine War 2026Restricted publication of refinery, export and shipping data
Russia-Ukraine War 2026: Putin decree curbs Russian refinery dataBackground
Decree No. 686 is a Russian presidential decree that Vladimir Putin signed on 28 September 2026. It approves a list of fuel and energy information to which access is restricted, and bars spreading it, including through the media and the internet, except what a company discloses about itself.
The list covers refinery output, export volumes and prices, buyers, sellers, carriers, forwarders and insurers, tanker details, terminal names and loading times. The decree rests on Russia's 2006 information law and on Article 4.2 of Federal Law No. 127-FZ of 2018 on counter-measures, and cites the "unfriendly actions" of the United States and its allies. It took effect on signature and gave the government ten days to name the commodity codes it applies to.
The restricted fields are the ones outside monitors use to track Russia's oil trade and its shadow fleet, so the decree removes the main public check on both sanctions enforcement and wartime damage claims.
The decree hides the refinery war's numbers
The decree's list covers exactly the figures that would test both sides' claims about the refinery war. Kyiv's 4 October claim that its drones had idled 51% of Russian refining is exactly the kind of number Decree No. 686 stops anyone testing against Russian output data; the Associated Press could not verify it.
The decree's export fields cover Alexander Novak's diesel figures too. On 29 September, the day after the decree, Russia extended its producer Diesel Export Ban to 31 October. Eleven days later Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said exports would restart early, at 300,000 tonnes in October, after Putin's call with Donald Trump. Under the decree, outside monitors cannot test either the damage or the volumes against Russian figures.