(Commonwealth_India) India is not trying to profit unfairly from its purchases of Russian oil; quite the opposite, according to Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who defended the country’s actions in a recent editorial published in The Hindu. He argued that India’s approach to buying discounted Russian crude has actually helped keep global oil markets stable and prevented prices from soaring to unsustainable levels, possibly as high as $200 a barrel.
Puri’s comments come at a politically charged moment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently in China meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at a regional summit, while criticism from the West, especially the United States, continues to mount. American officials have accused India of effectively supporting Russia’s war efforts by buying oil at lower prices, refining it, and then selling the products at a profit on the global market. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went as far as to say that India was profiteering. At the same time, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro suggested that these transactions were indirectly helping fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Puri pushed back firmly against such claims, calling the idea that India had become a “laundromat” for Russian oil completely false. In his view, the narrative misrepresents both the legal and economic realities. “Every Indian oil transaction is above board,” he wrote. “We use legally compliant traders, proper insurance, shipping, and audited channels. We haven’t broken any rules.”
India’s oil minister emphasised that the Russian oil trade is still operating within a G7/EU-imposed price cap system, which was explicitly designed to keep Russian oil flowing into the market while limiting Moscow’s revenue from it. This means that, unlike Iranian or Venezuelan crude, Russian oil has not been fully sanctioned. The mechanism was meant to walk a fine line, punishing Russia without triggering a global energy shock, and India, according to Puri, is operating fully within that framework.
What’s often overlooked, Puri said, is that India has arguably played a key role in preventing oil prices from spiralling out of control. As Western nations turned away from Russian oil, India stepped in to fill the gap, becoming the largest buyer of Russian seaborne crude. This shift not only ensured energy security for India but also kept global supply lines from collapsing under the weight of sudden disruption.
“There’s a larger truth here,” Puri added. “You can’t ignore the role of the world’s second-largest oil producer, a country that supplies nearly 10% of the global oil. There’s simply no substitute for that scale.”
In his view, the criticism India is receiving is not only unfair but also misses the bigger picture: stabilising energy markets during a time of geopolitical upheaval is a global service, not a selfish act.
