India’s Russian imports up 3.5 times on oil buys despite Western pressure

 

Russia is now the 4th largest petroleum supplier for India with exports worth dollar 1.3 billion in April. With the rising crude oil purchase India’s bill showed 3.5 times in a year in April to 2.3 billion. India’s crude oil valued dollar 1.3 billion and 57 percent of India’s total inbound shipment from Russia. Other major imported items during the month included coal, soybean and sunflower oil, fertilisers, and non-industrial diamonds.

 Russia was also the fourth-largest crude petroleum supplier to India, after Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hence, Russia was the sixth largest import partner in April. During the same month last year, Russia was the 7th biggest source of crude oil for India and Russia ranked 21st among India’s import partners. Russia was also India’s 9th largest trading partner in April (including both exports and imports), with the size of trade at $2.42 billion.  Crude oil imported to India from Russia are on the rise since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The invasion was followed by economic sanctions on Russia by the US and its allies, in an attempt to isolate the country from global trade and this led to spike in commodity prices.