"Russia's voice in the global economy and geopolitics sounds even louder"
when the price of oil is above $100 a barrel,
Kirill Dmitriev, the boss of a Russian state investment fund, crowed in March.
Nowhere is this truer than in Asia,
where the Iran war has sent countries scrambling
to secure essential fuels and fertilisers.
On March 27th the Philippines announced it had bought 2.48m barrels of Russian crude,
the country's first purchase of Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In Mr Dmitriev's telling, with Brent crude at around $100 a barrel, Russia is now "impossible to ignore".
More alarming than the price of oil is the uncertainty of its continued supply.
Asia overwhelmingly relies on fuel and fertiliser imported from the Gulf,
where Iranian threats to the Strait of Hormuz
have forced ships to remain at anchor.
America's biggest rivals, China and Russia, are not letting the crisis go to waste.
Almost a dozen countries across Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam,
are lining up to buy Russian crude,
while America's stalwart partners, such as Japan and South Korea,
are contemplating whether to follow suit.
China is seeking deals of its own.
The new wave of energy diplomacy raises the prospect