Ukraine crisis: India’s irresistible charm of Russian oil

One after the next, the entreaties have streamed into India. Buying Russian oil, President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is not in your country’s interest. Undermining sanctions, a US official starkly warned, could bring “consequences”. Taking a harder line on Russia, a parade of American and European emissaries argued, is a global imperative.

But for India, the decision to hold tight to its neutrality on Russia’s war in Ukraine is no longer just about keeping its options open in a world with multiple centres of power. It has evolved into a lucrative case of economic opportunism: Russian oil is just too good a deal to pass up.

India’s purchases of Russian crude have soared since the conflict’s start, rising from nothing in December and January to about 300,000 barrels a day in March and 700,000 a day in April.