Russia needs to step in at this opportune time to help meet India’s oil demand, a policy expert has told RT India.
Energy cooperation is the backbone of current trade between Russia and India, the General Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), Ivan Timofeev, said in an exclusive conversation on Monday.
This is “despite the political pressure from the US and other Western countries, which are trying to preclude Russia and India from collaboration in the energy field,” he said.
Timofeev cited the 25% tariffs slapped on New Delhi by the Trump administration in August, 2025, for buying Russian oil.
He said the Middle East crisis and the war against Iran “provoke the risk of the towering deficit on the energy market and crude oil market,” adding that Russia is one player that can help India deal with the issue.
“Russia has always been a reliable partner which fulfills its commitments on stable supplies,” he added. “So, now it’s high time for Russia to play this role again and to bolster [meet] India’s demands of oil and related energy materials.”
The expert observed that Washington’s sanctions on Moscow are still in place and temporary exemptions are not an outcome of goodwill measures from the US side but “determined by their pragmatic interests not to face the uncontrolled growth of oil prices.”
When asked about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit to Russia this year, he said, “we’ll, of course, try to use this opportunity to further promote our bilateral agenda fixed by [the] previous two meetings.”
“The economy will remain a major foundation of this dialogue,” Timofeev added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a landmark visit to India in December. The countries have set a target to boost annual trade from the present $68 billion to $100 billion by 2030.