saying it is helping fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine, has put the South Asian nation in the highest tier of tariffed nations so far. While New Delhi and Moscow are old strategic partners with a relationship dating to the Cold War era, and Russia is a major supplier of India’s defence arsenal, Trump’s ire has predominantly been focused on the recent surge in India’s oil imports from its old ally.

India was “Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE – ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on July 30. On August 19, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that “some of the richest families in India” were the biggest beneficiaries of these imports. The biggest importer in India of Russian crude oil has been Reliance Industries (RIL), which is led by Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani. Russian crude comprised a mere 3 percent of RIL’s Jamnagar refinery’s total crude imports in 2021. Since the war in Ukraine, it has shot up to an average of 50 percent in 2025, according to data from the Finland-headquartered Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

In the first seven months of 2025, the Jamnagar refinery has imported 18.3 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia, a 64 percent year-on-year increase, and worth $8.7bn. RIL’s imports from Russia in the first seven months of 2025 are only 12 percent lower than the total imports in 2024, CREA said. (Al Jazeera)