India is free to buy oil from any country, and there is nothing new about its decision to diversify its crude suppliers, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, days after US President Donald Trump announced the India-US trade deal with a claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to stop buying Russian oil.
Trump on Monday declared a trade deal with India and reduced tariffs on New Delhi to 18 per cent after holding a telephonic conversation with PM Modi. He also said PM Modi has agreed to stop buying oil from Russia and will start buying more oil from the US and also from Venezuela.
Russia is not the only supplier of oil: Kremlin
The Kremlin noted that Moscow is not the only crude supplier for New Delhi, and there is nothing new about India's decision to diversify its crude suppliers.
"We, along with all other international energy experts, are well aware that Russia is not the only supplier of oil and petroleum products to India. India has always purchased these products from other countries. Therefore, we see nothing new here," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said while responding to a question about US President Donald Trump's claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to stop buying Russian oil and switch to purchasing crude from the United States and, potentially, from Venezuela.
A day earlier, Peskov said that Russia has not received any statements from India regarding the cessation of Russian oil purchases.
Russia stands firm with India on energy ties
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Wednesday said that the hydrocarbons trade is beneficial for both India and Russia. "We remain convinced that India's purchase of Russian hydrocarbons is beneficial to both countries and contributes to maintaining stability in the international energy market. We are ready to continue close cooperation in this area with our partners in India," Zakharova said at a press briefing.
Russia's private Kommersant FM business radio noted that, unlike President Trump, PM Modi did not mention any agreement on stopping Russian oil imports.
Igor Yushkov, a leading expert at the National Energy Security Fund, said that Indian refiners cannot fully stop the import of Russian crude.
"The American shale oil they export is light grades, similar to gas condensate. Russia, on the other hand, supplies relatively heavy, sulfur-rich Urals. This means India will need to blend US crude with other grades, which incurs additional costs, meaning a simple substitution won't be possible," he said.
"Russia typically exports 1.5 million to 2 million barrels per day to the country. America won't be able to cover that volume. So, one gets the sense that Trump is simply trying to show that he won these trade negotiations and the deal was concluded entirely in line with US demands," he said.
When Russia pivoted from European and American markets to India in 2022, it cut production by one million barrels per day, a move that pushed global oil prices up to around $120 per barrel and drove gasoline and diesel prices in the United States to record highs, Yushkov recalled.
Trump last year imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, among the highest in the world, including 25 per cent levies for its purchases of Russian energy.
India buys about 88% crude oil from overseas
India meets nearly 88 per cent of its crude oil requirement through imports, which are refined into fuels such as petrol and diesel.
Until 2021, Russian oil accounted for barely 0.2 per cent of India's total crude imports. However, following Western sanctions on Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India, the world's third-largest oil importer, emerged as the biggest buyer of discounted Russian crude.
According to data from real-time analytics firm Kpler, India's imports of Russian crude declined to about 1.1 million barrels per day in the first three weeks of January, down from an average of 1.21 million bpd in the previous month and more than 2 million bpd recorded in mid-2025.
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