In the backdrop of President Donald Trump slapping added penalty on India for buying Russian oil, a senior Russian Diplomat in India said that Russia would continue with oil supplies to India at the same level at a press briefing held in New Delhi on Wednesday (August 20, 2025).
A Reuter report quoted Roman Babushkin – the charge d’affaires of the Russian Embassy in India – saying, “Russia has a “very, very special mechanism” to continue oil supplies to India”. The report also highlighted him saying that President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the end of this year, though “no dates have been fixed for the Putin-Modi meet yet”.
The Russian Diplomat went on to criticise the United States over imposing tariffs and penalty on India’s imports of Russian crude oil. Babushkin called the move “unjustified and unilateral”.
Interestingly, the United States holds off on imposing similar tariffs on China over its imports of Russian crude oil.
However, the US takes a jaundiced view of the expanding Indian imports of Russian oil, slapping additonal 25% tariff on Indian goods, effective August 6, 2025, which according to Trump administration fuels Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
