Russia just told India it can have all the oil it wants. Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov declared in September 2026 that Moscow stands ready to supply India with as much crude as it needs, framing Western sanctions as illegitimate pressure tactics rather than meaningful policy tools.
The numbers tell a story of dependence and disruption
India’s imports of Russian crude peaked above 2 million barrels per day during 2025-2026, a staggering figure for a trade relationship that barely existed at meaningful scale before the war in Ukraine began.
At its high point, Russian crude accounted for roughly 55% of India’s total crude imports. That’s a country of 1.4 billion people getting more than half its imported oil from a single sanctioned supplier.
Sanctions pressure, tariff adjustments, and shifting regulatory environments have caused wild swings, with import volumes dropping to between 400,000 and 1 million bpd at various points.
