India Defends Russian Oil Purchases and Says Washington Once Asked for Them

India's external affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, defended his country's energy ties with Moscow at a conference in Finland and rejected European criticism of those purchases, Deutsche Welle reported.

Jaishankar said the United States had specifically asked India to buy Russian oil to stabilize the global market and prevent a damaging price surge, then later placed tariffs on India over the same trade before lifting some sanctions again. He argued that much of the oil available was Russian because European buyers had absorbed the Middle Eastern supplies that traditionally went to India, and that "I don't think making this about sanctimony is really warranted."

The remarks capture a structural shift. India has become one of the largest buyers of discounted Russian crude since Western sanctions redirected those flows, a realignment that has helped Moscow sustain export revenue and given New Delhi cheaper energy. The pattern fits a broader move by Russia to reorder its commerce around partners outside the Western financial system.

The dispute also exposes the contradictions in the Western sanctions regime. As Jaishankar's account makes plain, the same purchases were encouraged to calm prices and then penalized on political grounds, leaving exporters and importers uncertain which rules actually govern the oil trade.