MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) - Oil refining in Russia and exports of oil products are seven times more effective than crude exports, the head of the Institute of Globalization Problems said Monday.
"Russia needs a strategic transfer from crude exports to its advanced refining on its territory and exports of refined products," Mikhail Delyagin said.
He called the process technologically and politically difficult.
Delyagin said Russia would turn profits that Europe and the United States were currently making on Russian crude, but it could cause a crisis in Russia's relations with the West.