3rdtimeluckystudio/Shutterstock Save for later Print Download Share After more than two years of consideration, Russia has approved its 2050 Energy Strategy despite continued doubts that the plan's core targets will be possible to achieve in the current macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. While the plan takes into account key challenges facing the global energy sector today, experts do not see a clear pathway for Russia to overcome key obstacles, including ongoing Western sanctions and hard-to-recover resources, on top of broader pressures around energy transition and demand uncertainty. The approved strategy includes five potential scenarios, a change from a draft version released in November that included only four. An accelerated energy transition scenario — which also envisages the lifting of Russian sanctions — was added to the stress, inertial, target and technical potential scenarios. In the "target" scenario, the strategy assumes an optimal ratio between reliable domestic supplies at the lowest cost and the effective realization of Russia's export potential while the country achieves national climate targets and technological sovereignty. Under the "stress" scenario, Russia would see a significant decline of production due to reduced export opportunities, largely as a result of continued sanctions. An "inertial" scenario would entail a stagnation in current trends without significant new investments. The most optimistic "technical potential" scenario envisages the maximum possible levels of energy production.