The Russian oil industry is “booming despite war, sanctions” and CNN is livid with disbelief, to put it mildly. So CNN has decided to train guns on India.
Watch how global media is demonizing India for buying oil from Russia.
— Abhishek (@AbhishBanerj) March 4, 2024
CNN accuses India of making Putin richer, and funding war in Ukraine
Where was CNN for decades when America gave billions of $$$ and weapons to Pakistan? pic.twitter.com/UUhTaezrBH
A news report filed by CNN journalist Nick Paton Walsh broadcast on the 19th of February has held India responsible for the United States’ failure to have the desired effect on the Russian economy through sanctions.
The premise of the report, rather alarming in nature, is that India has been increasingly buying Russian crude oil rendering the US sanctions largely ineffective.
“Sanctions were meant to dent oil paying for (Russian) war. But instead, India has stepped in and is now buying 13 times more Russian crude oil than before the war worth $37 billion last year,” the reporter says, citing a study by an Finland-based think tank.
The report also mentions that in 2023 America was the biggest buyer of refined oil products from India at over $1 billion. “Way more if you add to what US allies, also imposing sanctions on Russia, also import,” the report claims.
And yet, CNN’s report appears to implicate India for looking after its interests, even though – as per its own account, all countries that have imposed sanctions continue to import products made from Russian crude oil.
“Putin earning money on the crude, probably the shipping but also the refining and the resale,” the reporter narrates alarmingly.
Some of this data, the CNN report claims, was given exclusively to CNN but it is really available for all to access on Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) website.
How civil societies in the West cheerleading for Ukraine are suggesting to the Western powers to expand sanctions beyond Russia
Interestingly, CNN’s witch-hunt is based on a so-called analysis done by an European think tank called Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
CREA has been calling for a “ban on the importation of oil products produced from Russian crude oil to enhance the impact of the sanctions by disincentivizing third countries from importing large amounts of Russian crude and help cut Russian revenues”.
Furthermore, in calling for solidarity with Ukraine, CREA along with “more than 280 European, international and Ukrainian NGOs” have appealed to the G7 and EU for enforced compliance. They have demanded to “close the “refining loophole”, which allows EU and G7 countries to import oil products — mainly diesel, jet fuel and gasoline — produced from Russian oil at refineries in third countries like India, Turkey or UAE.”
India has repeatedly countered the West and Western media’s prejudice
The CNN report not only contains half-baked information but also conveniently skips several such points that India has addressed in response to the same criticism over and over again. The allegations have been made in the past by various Western media and also by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and have been rendered baseless with India’s response.
In May 2023, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar showed the mirror to the European Union and the Western media following a question on the call by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to “crackdown on India reselling Russian oil into Europe as refined fuel.”
Jaishankar responded to the question about the same citing EU council regulations. “I don’t see a basis for your question because my understanding of the Council (EU) regulations is that when Russian crude is substantially transformed in a third country then it’s not treated as Russian anymore,” he said urging the media to look at Council regulation 833/201.
In March 2022, Jaishankar pointed out that European countries were the biggest importers of Russian gas and oil. He made the remarks during a discussion at the India-UK Strategic Futures Forum.
During a conversation with British Foreign Secretary of State Liz Truss, S Jaishankar emphasised that India purchased its majority of energy supplies from the Middle East. He pointed out that around 8% of the total oil imports were from the United States while less than 1% of crude oil purchases were from Russia.
He had added, “I am pretty sure if we wait two or three months and actually look at who are the big buyers of Russian oil and gas, I suspect the list would not be too different from what it used to be and I suspect we won’t be in the top 10 on that list.
In April 2022, S Jaishankar gave a befitting reply to a reporter, who had tried to raise the issue of Indian oil purchases from Russia during the 4th edition of the India-US 2+2 dialogue.
“I noticed you referred to oil purchases. If you are looking at energy purchases from Russia, I would suggest that your attention should be focused on Europe,” he emphasised.
Dr S Jaishankar pointed out, “We do buy some energy, which is necessary for our energy security. But I suspect looking at the figures. Our total purchases for the month will be less than what Europe does in one afternoon. So, you might want to think about it.”
In December 2022, Jaishankar pointed out in response to a German reporter’s question that “the European Union between 24th February and 17th November (2022) has imported more fossil fuel from Russia than the next 10 countries combined.”
He said, “Just to give you an India comparison, the oil import in EU is six times what India has imported; gas is infinity times because we don’t import whereas EU has imported 50 billion euros worth; even coal imports from Russia by EU, I am singling any particular country, is 50 per cent more than India’s.”
At the recently-held Munich Security Conference, Jaishankar was questioned about India buying Russian oil and asked “if that is okay with your counterpart in the US?”. “Your question do we have multiple options, answer is yes. Is that a problem? Why should it be a problem? If I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me, you shouldn’t be criticising me,” Jaishankar said as the audiences burst into applauds and laughter.
How India’s purchase of Russian oil is keeping world economy in check
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the India Energy Week Conference, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said that the world is grateful for buying Russian oil.
“If we start buying more of the Middle Eastern oil, the oil price will not be at $75 or $76. It will be $150,” Puri said.
Additionally, the diversification of India’s crude oil imports have in fact aided the West, moreover Europe, by freeing up more oil for them. In 2022, oil imports to India from 6 of its 10 top suppliers declined drastically including 49% decrease from Nigeria, 24% decrease from US, 18% from Kuwait and 10% from Iraq.
As per reports, these countries instead diverted their exports to other than India including G7 and Europe.
“By importing from Russia, India also has helped the global economy in the sense that [we] freed up some oil on the Gulf for other countries to source, particularly Europe. So it was kind of a win-win situation,” said KC Ramesh, executive director of ONGC.
“India has been able to play this role in smoothing global flows of oil and oil products because it is the world’s third-largest importer of crude and its fourth-biggest exporter of petroleum products,” Nikkei Asia stated in a report.
Not to mention, India’s purchase of Russian oil has ensured that the world economy is not left paralysed. If Russia finds no takers for its approximately 8 million barrel of oil supply, “the market could be irreparably damaged, delivering a devastating blow to the world economy,” stated the Nikkei Asia report.
Additionally, according to experts, if Russian oil exports are hurt significantly, the Himalayan consumption of crude oil from India (approximately 5 million barrels per day) and China would trigger a global supply shortage even with the two turning to other suppliers.
“If India were not buying the volumes of Russian crude that it is, there would be a hole of comparable size in global supplies,” writes Vandana Hari in Nikkei Asia, founder of Vanda Insights, a Singapore-based global energy market intelligence provider.
US and EU know that India purchasing Russian crude oil is important and unavoidable
Russian and Ukraine war triggered an energy crisis in the West, epsecially in Europe. India has rather aided them in averting this crisis from turning into a full-blown disaster by supplying refined oil to these countries, which is not considered Russian after transformation.
Moreover, reports have claimed that the G7 and EU have let India do the “dirty work” of buying Russian oil “to avert a full-blown crisis”. Experts have credited India for controlled crude oil prices even when it was being projected when the conflict broke out that oil prices could shoot over $200 per barrell.
India has been a key player for the West in avoiding a situation that could have stoked inflation thereby hurting economies worldwide.
Compare this with the several times that US has aided Pakistan much to the detriment of India
While US-based CNN, which propagates Washington’s left-liberal political interests, has broadcasted accusatory reports about India way too many times, the US itself is complicit in aiding a terrorist state like Pakistan.
In September 2022, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called out the United States’ for giving a $450 million package to the terrorist state of Pakistan. The Pentagon called it “F-16 Case for sustainment and related equipment”.
Jaishankar boldly retorted to Washington saying that the latter is “not fooling anyone”. The EAM said, “Very honestly, it is a relationship that has ended up serving neither Pakistan well nor serving American interests well. It is really for the US to reflect what the merits of the relationship [are] and what they get by keeping it sort of continuing.”
In a statement on 20th February, Jaishankar reaffirmed the defence ties between India and Russia highlighting that many Western countries supplied arms to Pakistan and not India.
Additionally, between 1951 and 2011, the United States has given nearly $67 billion to Pakistan. Moreover, as per reports, US have given a direct assistance to Pakistan of over $32 billion over the past 20 years.
As of 2022, US has reportedly given $97 million in aid to Pakistan and between 2002 and 2010, it gave Pakistan almost $19 billion in the name of counterterrorism operations.
Thus, while India’s purchase of crude oil is far from hurting any economy and instead has stabilised the global economy in a volatile geopolitical environment, the United State’s funding to Pakistan has come at a huge cost to India, its neighbourhood and human rights at large.
The CNN report derived from a study conducted by a European think tank is deeply prejudiced and rooted in Western interests while manufacturing a narrative against India for looking after its own interests.
Narrative and agenda-driven CNN fails to understand that money matters
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in January this year addressed questions on the decline in India’s import of Russian crude oil.
To this, the minister replied in clear words that the decision was purely based on the reduction in discount on cargoes.
“There is only one requirement that Indian consumers get the energy at the most economical price without disruption. Russian imports had gone up to 40 per cent. Now if they have come down to 33 per cent or 28-29 per cent, is it not a question of payment problem? There is no payment problem. It is a pure function of the price at which our refiners will buy it,” Puri said.
He added that India will always purchase crude oil from vendors offering it at the cheapest rates.
“We are buying 1.5 million barrels per day of oil from Russia. 1.5 million barrels per day out of 5 million barrels per day consumption (in India). If they don’t give a discount, why would be buy it?” he said.
Despite all of the above, CNN chose to target India through its flawed reporting despite the fact that the CREA research studies on Russian oil exports mention China, Singapore, European Union, UAE and Turkey among others.
