India only buys Russian oil, West helps make weapons that kill Ukrainians

(File) A tanker carrying Russian fuel oil. Reuters

The rise and irreversibility of a multipolar world has rattled the United States (US), the self-anointed global police that lectured other nations and often coerced them into falling in line with its interests in the name of morality for decades.

In the last few years, Russia and China have challenged the US hegemony with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping cementing their ties further.

India has also developed an independent foreign policy in the last few years that’s outside the American orbit. Its ties with the US have become stronger, but it is clear that Washington wants to use New Delhi to counter Beijing in the Indo-Pacific. India also wants stronger ties with the US with Russia and China coming closer and the People’s Liberation Army’s aggression along the Line of Actual Control.

However, India-Russia relations are too old and strong to wither in the face of the increasing collaboration with the US. India can’t be coerced into toeing the American line in the Ukraine war. US lectures and warnings to India about morality, war crimes in Ukraine and the NATO sanctions regarding the purchase of discounted Russian oil have become nauseating.

One month after Russia invaded Ukraine, US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it wasn’t in New Delhi’s interest to buy more oil from Moscow and could hamper Washington’s response to the war.

On several occasions, American diplomats and the Western media have questioned India’s stance. External affairs minister S Jaishankar has been succinct and clear that New Delhi-Moscow relations have always been “stable and friendly”, and Indian purchase of Russian crude has stabilised oil prices.

“Is that a problem? Why should that be a problem? If I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me,” he quipped when asked about India’s growing ties with the US on one hand and buying Russian oil on the other at the recent Munich Security Conference.

In an interview with the German economic daily Handelsblatt, Jaishankar said that India and Europe don’t need to have the same views about Russia when asked whether India would have liked European support during the 2020 China border conflict.

When asked about the purchase of discounted Russian crude, he said that India “stabilised the energy market” because Europe was paying higher prices to Middle East oil exporters after the Western cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil on 5 December, 2022.

India looks for its interests

The Western media has been hammering the point that India’s buying of Russian crude had bolstered its war against Ukraine.

CNN  recently reported that there is “unprecedented amount of cash” in Russian coffers after the sale of a record $37 billion of crude oil to India in 2023. Mentioning a Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) analysis “exclusively shared with it”, the outlet said that India had increased its purchase of Russian crude by more than 13 times its pre-war amounts.

India, which imports 85 per cent of its crude oil requirement, is looking for its economic interests like any other nation. From $9.51 billion in 2014, bilateral trade with Russia jumped to more than $50 billion by December 2023, boosted by massive crude imports.

According to the commerce ministry, the share of Russian crude in total oil imports has rocketed from only 2 per cent in 2021-22 to 36 per cent in 2022-23 with India purchasing 1.66 million barrels per day (mb/d) as against 651,800 mb/d. Russia became the largest oil exporter to India displacing Iraq, followed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Crude oil imports from Russia fell for a second month from 1.62 mb/d in November and 1.32 mb/d in December 2023 to 1.2 mb/d in January, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa, due to less discounts, recent US sanctions on shipowners transporting Russian crude above the price cap and the Red Sea attacks.

However, Russia continued to be India’s top supplier accounting for around 25 per cent of 4.91 mb/d imported in January. For example, Russia was India’s leading supplier in December supplying oil worth $3.92 billion. In the first nine months of last year, India saved around $2.7 billion by importing discounted Russian crude.

US hypocrisy on oil sanctions

While the US has lectured India, it imported Russian oil worth $2.7 million and $749,500 in October and November, respectively, according to a report by Sputnik News in January.

The Western media has neither countered the claim nor reported it. Despite the price cap, the US imported Russian oil, which cost $74 per barrel in October and $76 in November, respectively, the report claimed.

Citing US Customs data, Sputnik reported that the US imported 36,800 barrels of Russian oil in October and 9,900 in November after the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforced sanctions, granted specific licences.

The CREA report also exposes the US hypocrisy on oil sanctions. While America is against India buying Russian crude, it was the largest importer of refined oil products—like diesel, gasoil, jet fuel, gasoline and naphtha—worth $1.3 billion from non-price cap coalition (PCC) countries, including India, from December 2022 to December 2023.

A significant chunk of the CNN> report details how the Russian ships transfer oil to its Shadow Fleet of vessels in Greece’s Laconian Gulf, which evade sanctions and reach Indian shores. Citing the data of Pole Star Global, a maritime intelligence company, data, it mentions more than 200 such trips to India last year.

CNN mentions the massive US imports of oil products in only four paras at the end.

CREA found a 44% year-on-year increase in Western imports of oil products by volume produced from Russian crude from third countries in the 13 months with the US topping the list.

The value of these imported oil products was €8.5 billion, generating €1.7 billion of tax revenues for Russia. The countries included the US, Netherlands, France, the UK, Italy, Australia, Romania and Spain.

Diesel was the top commodity imported by PCC countries at €7.4 billion from eight major refineries with 76 per cent, worth €5.7 billion, coming India’s Jamnagar refinery. Gasoil worth €4.8 billion was the second highest imported product from these refineries, followed by €4.7 billion of jet fuel.

More than 30 per cent of India’s oil products exports were derived from Russian crude worth € 6.16 billion with the Jamnagar refinery alone exporting €5.2 billion of such products.

PCC countries imported a further €469 million worth of oil products from India’s Vadinar refinery despite OFAC-sanctioned Russian energy giant Rosneft holding 49.1 per cent share in the owning company. America imported €59 million of oil products from Vadinar since December 2022.

US critical components in Russian arms

The worst aspect of the American double standard on implementing sanctions against Russia is allowing its companies to supply sanctioned critical components used in missiles, drones and fighter jets to non-PCC nations who export it to Russia.

India is merely buying Russian oil for its economic interests, not supplying battlefield goods and critical components—semiconductors, computer parts, communications and navigation equipment and other electronics—which Russia uses in making weapons that target Ukraine.

Isn’t the West, especially the US, complicit in the killing of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians?

The US again tops the list of countries whose components are used in manufacturing Russian weapons. According to a December report by War & Sanctions, the world’s first open database of foreign components in weapons, about 75 per cent of the total 2,453 components found in Russian arms in Ukraine were of US origin. The US, with 1,816 items, was followed by Switzerland (120), Japan (96), China (87) and Germany (75). Excluding China, all the other countries have sanctioned Russia.

The Russian Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile, used against Ukraine, has, at least, 78 foreign components, a majority of which are electronic parts made by US companies like Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, and Micron, per the report.

Around 45 foreign electronic parts are used to produce 3M-14 Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles. The 9M723 ballistic missiles and 9M728/9M729 cruise missiles from the Iskander systems have, at least, 15 and 32 types of foreign electronic components, respectively.

Fifty-five American electronic components were found in the HESA Shahed-136 Iranian drones. About 130 US parts are used to make the Ka-52 attack copters.

According to a January report by the Kyiv School of Economics and the Yermak-McFaul International Working Group on Russian Sanctions, Ukraine’s National Agency for Corruption Prevention found around 2,800 foreign parts in Russian military equipment.

Shockingly, 95 per cent of all parts found in the weapons were sourced from producers in countries that sanctioned Russia with the US alone accounting for 72 per cent.

When Russia was sanctioned, its imports of battlefield goods and critical components in March-July 2022 tanked to a monthly average of $565 million and $1.69 billion, respectively. But in the first 10 months of 2023, Russia imported battlefield goods worth $8.77 billion and critical components valued at $22.23 billion.

The West hasn’t implemented sanctions completely, allowing Russia to source such components in third countries. Moreover, US-based manufacturers accounted for 25.5 per cent of battlefield goods and 15.1 per cent of critical components imported by Russia. The US was followed by the EU and Taiwan.

American companies—such as Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and IBM—continue to trade with Russia through third-country intermediaries like China, Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE.

US-headquartered companies accounted for 61 per cent of all critical components exported to Russia. For instance, Analog Devices’ average monthly supplies of critical components to Russia ($27 million) in 2023 were 51 per cent higher than in 2022.

Besides, several of the products are manufactured in offshore facilities—China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand—of American companies. Since these countries haven’t sanctioned Russia, they supply the components.

Coalition countries also accounted for 97.8 per cent of exports of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines, used in missiles and drones, to Russia in January-October 2023. Russia imported CNC machinery worth $189 million, 88.3 per cent higher than in the pre-invasion period.

Therefore, the Russian military-industrial complex continues to churn out lethal weapons. Consequently, Russian missile and drone strikes against Ukraine increased from 96 and 108, respectively, in January 2023 to 199 and 623, respectively, in December 2023.

How many times has the US questioned China, the largest importer of Russian crude, about its moral obligation?

Russian crude exports to China increased by 24 per cent in 2023 to 2.14 mb/d compared to 2022.

Moreover, an investigation by  The Daily Telegraph in August 2023 revealed that China is supplying helicopters, drones, optical sights and crucial metals used by the defence industry to Russia. Some Chinese firms also supply civilian drones using the dual-use pretext and by exploiting the grey space between military and civilian purposes.

The investigation also revealed that Chinese exports of titanium alloy products, used to make military aircraft and weapons, to Russia doubled to $18 million in 2022 compared to 2021. China also exported magnesium alloys to Tupolev, which builds long-range bombers like the Tu-95 and Tu-160M, which have launched cruise missiles at Ukraine.

In April 2023, Ukrainian experts found Chinese components in a navigation system in Orlan aerial drones and Russian tanks. Kyiv named Chinese weapons maker China North Industries Group and military supplier Xinxing Guangzhou Import & Export Co.

Vadym Skibitsky, the representative of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, told RBC-Ukraine in January that around 80 per cent of components, especially electronics, found in Russian weapons enters through China.

China has flatly denied such allegations. Foreign minister Wang Yi said at the Munich Security Conference that China “does not sell lethal weapons to conflict areas or parties to the conflict”.

Have the US, the EU or the Western media questioned Wang about Chinese imports of Russian crude or allegations of supplying weapons to Moscow?

Besides, why the EU bought €28.1 billion of Russian fossil fuels in the second year of the invasion, which was more than double the bloc’s annual financial support to Ukraine, if it is serious about sanctioning Russia and ending the war? The average EU citizen has paid an estimated €420 for Russian fossil fuels since the war started, according to CREA.

Russia’s projected monthly earnings without further sanctions are €29,473 million. If further sanctions, like lowering the price cap to $30, capping oil products at $25-$35 and sanctioning pipeline gas, LNG and pipeline oil are imposed, monthly earnings are projected to drop by €20,968 million.

CREA and more than 280 European, international and Ukrainian NGOs in an open letter dated February 21 appealed to the EU and the G7 to “tighten their grip on Russia’s key revenue streams from exports of fossil fuels, ban Russian LNG gas imports and close all loopholes in existing sanctions”.

“We welcome the recent decision by the European Council to support Ukraine with €50 billion in aid. However, the EU’s recent aid commitment represents 27 per cent of their total fossil fuel imports purchased from Russia since the beginning of their full-scale invasion, estimated at over €185 billion,” the letter reads.

Are the US and the EU listening before lecturing India? India isn’t answerable to the West for its economic, strategic and military decisions and goals. India’s independent foreign policy is guided by its interests irrespective of its alignment with the West.

The writer is a freelance journalist with two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.