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United States President Donald Trump’s further 25 percent tariff connected India for its imports from Russia, saying it is helping substance Russia’s warfare successful Ukraine, has enactment the South Asian federation successful the highest tier of tariffed nations truthful far.
While New Delhi and Moscow are aged strategical partners with a narration dating to the Cold War era, and Russia is simply a large supplier of India’s defence arsenal, Trump’s ire has predominantly been focused connected the caller surge successful India’s lipid imports from its aged ally.
India was “Russia’s largest purchaser of ENERGY, on with China, astatine a clip erstwhile everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE – ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!” Trump posted connected his Truth Social level connected July 30.
On August 19, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that “some of the richest families successful India” were the biggest beneficiaries of these imports.
The biggest importer successful India of Russian crude lipid has been Reliance Industries (RIL), which is led by Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani.
Russian crude comprised a specified 3 percent of RIL’s Jamnagar refinery’s full crude imports successful 2021. Since the warfare successful Ukraine, it has changeable up to an mean of 50 percent successful 2025, according to information from the Centre for Research connected Energy and Clean Air (CREA) successful Amsterdam.
In the archetypal 7 months of 2025, the Jamnagar refinery has imported 18.3 cardinal tonnes of crude lipid from Russia, a 64 percent year-on-year increase, and worthy $8.7bn. RIL’s imports from Russia successful the archetypal 7 months of 2025 are lone 12 percent little than the full imports successful 2024, CREA said. Its methodology tin beryllium recovered here.
That displacement has been driven by the terms headdress connected Russian lipid products that kicked successful connected February 5, 2023, Vaibhav Raghunandan, a European Union-Russia expert astatine CREA, told Al Jazeera.
“The archetypal intent of the terms headdress was to curtail Russian revenues, portion besides ensuring information of proviso globally,” said Raghunandan. “A lowered terms headdress is technically expected to marque this lipid much charismatic for countries similar India and China, but restrict Russian revenues.”
RIL did not respond to a elaborate database of questions from Al Jazeera.
However, a stagnation of the level of the terms headdress – it has been astatine $60 for much than 3 years present – and a deficiency of enforcement person blunted its effect, Raghunandan added.
Instead, a shadiness fleet – a fleet of hundreds of vessels operated by Russia to evade policing of its exports – has helped guarantee that buyers paid higher than the terms cap. As precocious arsenic January, astir 83 percent of Russian crude was being transported via these vessels, arsenic per CREA data. In June, that was down to 59 percent.
CREA tracked RIL’s Russian crude lipid imports astatine its Jamnagar refinery and exports, from 2021 to the extremity of past month, for Al Jazeera.
It recovered that the Jamnagar refinery has exported $85.9bn of refined products globally from February 2023 till past month. An estimated 42 percent ($36bn) of those exports person gone to countries sanctioning Russia.
A 3rd of their full exports, worthy 17 cardinal euros ($19.7bn), person been to the EU and $6.3bn of lipid products to the US, an estimated $2.3bn of which were processed from Russian crude.
The US is the fourth-biggest importer among idiosyncratic countries, successful worth terms, from this refinery since the terms caps came into effect, topped lone by the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Singapore. In volume, the US is the biggest importer from the Jamnagar refinery, having imported 8.4 cardinal tonnes of lipid products since the terms caps till the extremity of July 2025.
In 2025, the US imported $1.4bn of lipid products from the refinery, a 14 percent year-on-year increase, the 3rd astir of immoderate state globally.
US imports from Jamnagar dwell chiefly of blending components (64 percent), petrol (14 percent) and substance oils (13 percent).
After RIL, Nayara Energy, which is majority-owned by Russian firms, including Rosneft, the state-owned lipid and state giant, has been a large importer of Russian crude. Its Vadinar refinery, the second-largest backstage refinery successful India aft Jamnagar, got, connected average, 66 percent of its full crude imports this twelvemonth from Russia.
In presumption of existent volumes, Nayara’s Russian imports magnitude to a 3rd of what Reliance imports from Russia for its Jamnagar refinery, CREA said.
‘A full sham’
Analysts accidental it would beryllium simplistic to suggest that India is bearing the outgo of the further tariffs conscionable for the payment of 1 company.
“It seems to maine that adjacent if astir of the profits went to Reliance, the Indian authorities has recovered it convenient to proceed this commercialized with Russia, some due to the fact that the cheaper lipid imports helped with India’s existent relationship shortage and besides helped nonstop a connection of non-alignment,” said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct elder chap astatine the Center for a New American Security, wherever she focuses connected the interlinkages betwixt economics, concern and information issues.
India has historically sought to show strategical independency from large powers, refusing to align formally adjacent during the Cold War with either the US oregon the Soviet Union.
Ajay Srivastava, laminitis of the Delhi-based Global Trade Research Initiative, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s tariff for India’s import of Russian lipid was “a full sham”.
“The full happening of putting tariffs is simply a sham erstwhile they haven’t called retired the biggest importer of Russian lipid that is China,” Srivastava said, adding that Trump was “scared to telephone retired China … If time Trump and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin travel to an statement [over Ukraine], US volition find different pretext to enactment tariffs connected India” arsenic the tariffs were driven by different issues including Trump’s frustrations implicit India not giving into US commercialized demands.
Reliance, helium said, whitethorn person profited from the little crude prices for Russian oil, and the lone crushed that is nether scrutiny is that it is simply a backstage firm, and it is quality quality to question the wealthy.
Since the terms headdress kicked successful and till the extremity of past month, 38 percent of US imports of blending components, 4 percent of pitchy substance imports and 2 percent of petrol imports person travel from the Jamnagar refinery.
Analysts foretell immoderate changes successful the offing. The EU has enactment successful spot a prohibition connected imports of refined petroleum processed from Russian crude, a “significant argumentation change”, said CREA’s Raghunandan, adding that “if enforced strongly, it volition beryllium hugely impactful”. The prohibition is acceptable to statesman successful January.
More than fractional of RIL’s pitchy substance exports person been to the EU, and “losing this marketplace would truthful interaction their revenues from immoderate products heavier than others. But overall, it volition make a important rethink for their export strategy”, helium said.
But RIL successful December besides signed a 10-year declaration with Rosneft, and it is not wide however that would play retired with the sanctions.
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