Summary

India has responded to a new round of US sanctions on Russia by saying it will not change course on energy imports. The Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that the country will keep sourcing oil from a mix of suppliers, based on price and market conditions, not political pressure. The statement follows the passage of a US sanctions bill aimed at squeezing Moscow’s war funding through its energy and defence sectors.

Background

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and Western nations have spent years trying to choke off the money that keeps Moscow’s war machine running. India, meanwhile, took a different path. As Russian crude got cheaper, Indian refiners bought more of it, turning New Delhi into one of Moscow’s biggest oil customers almost overnight. That decision has irritated Washington for a while now, but India has mostly shrugged off the criticism, pointing to its own energy needs. With 1.4 billion people to keep the lights on for, officials argue, price matters more than politics.

Details

The latest US legislation goes further than earlier sanctions rounds. It targets Russia’s energy and defence sectors directly, along with senior officials and the so-called shadow fleet of tankers Moscow has used to dodge existing restrictions. Buried in the bill is a provision that hands President Trump the authority to slap tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that keep buying Russian oil and gas in bulk — and India is on that short list, alongside China.

For Indian refiners, this isn’t a hypothetical worry. Earlier US action against Rosneft and Lukoil, two of Russia’s largest producers, already put roughly 3.1 million barrels a day of exports at risk, with a compliance wind-down deadline set for late November. Reliance Industries, which has a long-term supply arrangement with Rosneft for up to 500,000 barrels a day, is among the companies watching closely to see how this plays out.

India’s crude imports from Russia had climbed sharply over the past few years, at one point nearly doubling to around 2.25 million barrels a day during a temporary window when US waivers made that possible. That cushion is gone now, and the new bill raises the stakes considerably.

Quotes

The Ministry of External Affairs kept its language measured but firm. It said India “remains firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4 billion people,” adding that sourcing decisions will keep following diversification and market conditions rather than outside pressure. The ministry also said New Delhi has already raised its concerns with US counterparts at senior levels, noting that the implications reach beyond the bilateral relationship into the wider international energy market.

Earlier this year, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri struck a similarly unbothered tone, pointing out that India now buys oil from around 40 countries instead of the roughly 27 it relied on a few years back, and that the government will keep buying wherever the price makes sense.

Impact

The immediate effect will likely show up first in refinery planning rather than at the pump. Indian companies are already shifting some purchases toward Middle Eastern, African and South American suppliers to reduce their exposure to Russian names caught up in sanctions. That kind of pivot isn’t free — different crude grades need different refining setups, and shipping costs change depending on where the oil is coming from.

Globally, the sanctions have already nudged Brent crude prices higher, up somewhere in the 3 to 4 percent range after the Rosneft and Lukoil measures were announced. If India and China both start buying less Russian crude at the same time, that could tighten supply further and push prices up more, which is not exactly what Washington wants either, given how it could ripple into US fuel costs.

On the diplomatic side, this adds one more layer of friction to a relationship that has otherwise been warming, with trade talks and defence cooperation moving forward on separate tracks. How much the tariff threat actually gets used, rather than just held in reserve as leverage, will say a lot about where things go from here.

Conclusion

For now, India’s position hasn’t moved: buy oil from wherever it’s cheapest and most available, sanctions or no sanctions. Whether that stance holds depends on how aggressively Washington decides to enforce the new tariff powers it just gave itself. Indian refiners are already hedging their bets by diversifying supply, which suggests that even without a policy change in New Delhi, the makeup of India’s oil imports is likely to shift in the months ahead regardless of how the standoff with Washington plays out.

FAQs

What are the sanctions imposed by India? 

India itself hasn’t imposed sanctions on Russia — it’s the other way around. The US has passed sanctions targeting Russia’s energy and defence sectors, senior Russian officials, and tankers used to move sanctioned oil. Separately, the same legislation gives the US president the power to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries, including India, that continue buying large volumes of Russian oil and gas. India’s own response so far has been diplomatic and economic rather than a matching sanctions regime — it has said it will keep diversifying its energy suppliers and has raised objections with US officials about how the bill could affect trade ties.

What is Russia’s view on India? 

Russia has long treated India as one of its most important strategic partners, both as a major buyer of discounted crude oil and as a longtime customer for military hardware. Moscow has generally welcomed India’s decision to keep purchasing Russian energy despite pressure from Washington and European capitals, viewing it as proof that its economy hasn’t been isolated as completely as Western sanctions intended. Russian officials have periodically praised India’s “independent foreign policy” as a model for other countries facing similar pressure from the West.

How is India protecting its economic interests amid the sanctions bill? 

India’s approach so far rests on three things: continuing to diversify its oil suppliers across dozens of countries rather than depending heavily on any one source, raising formal objections with US officials at senior levels about the bill’s potential fallout, and coordinating with domestic trade and industry bodies to prepare for possible tariff impacts. Officials have been careful not to frame this as a confrontation, instead describing it as a matter of managing “evolving market dynamics” while keeping the broader US-India relationship intact.