Pictured above: A Lukoil oil tanker
(Bloomberg) – Russia expects India to continue buying its oil, a senior official said, even as the South Asian nation faces higher U.S. tariffs and harsh criticism from Trump administration officials for the trade.
U.S. President Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods and threatened to double it to 50% on Aug. 27
India’s imports of Russian crude are likely to stay at current levels, Evgeny Griva, the deputy trade representative of Russia in India, told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The remarks come amid rising tariff tensions between the U.S. and India. President Donald Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods and threatened to double it to 50% on Aug. 27 — a rate that would make India’s $85 billion in annual U.S. exports uncompetitive.
Half of that penalty is for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, which the US sees as helping fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. India has defended its right to buy from the cheapest source, calling the tariffs “unreasonable.”
Russia sells oil to India at about a 5% discount, leaving Asia’s third-largest economy with few alternatives, Griva said. He projected bilateral trade to grow by about 10% a year.
For India, the advantage of Russian oil is that it can trade at a lower cost, making it a key tool for keeping domestic inflation in check.
India has edged away from the U.S. in the face of tariff threats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Putin as a “friend” after a call with the Russian leader this week and New Delhi has moved to bolster relations with China. Modi is set to visit China in late August — his first trip to the country in seven years — to meet President Xi Jinping.
India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is on a three-day visit to Russia to co-chair bilateral talks on trade, science and other issues.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday repeated Washington’s threat to raise import duties on Indian goods, saying it was “secondary tariffs for buying the sanctioned Russian oil.” He said India was “profiteering” from the oil purchases, and “some of the richest families in India” were benefiting.
India historically relied more on the Middle East for oil, importing little from Russia. That changed in 2022, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a $60-per-barrel price cap imposed by the Group of Seven nations that aimed to limit the Kremlin’s oil revenues while keeping supplies flowing globally.
India’s imports from Russia amounted to about 1.7 million barrels a day, or nearly 37% of the nation’s overseas purchases, in mid-2025. After a brief pause earlier this month, India’s state-run refiners have returned to buying Russian oil.
The U.S. is India’s top trading partner, while Russia ranks fourth. Roman Babushkin, a senior Russian diplomat in India, said Moscow is ready to take more of India’s tariff-hit goods and help India manufacture jet engines domestically.
