Continuing with it’s self-serving approach, Europe has been pointing fingers towards India from some time now. This is in particular references to India’s rising oil imports from Russia. In a recent report by Kpler and Bloomberg it is suggested that India is selling processed Russian oil to EU. This as per reports are designed to circumvent the sanctions on Russian oil. The report goes at great length to highlight possible collusion between India and Russia on this issue. It names one Russian firm Rosneft which owns large stake in a Gujarat refinery of selling Russian oil products under Indian branding.
India’s import of Russian oil has been a subject of heated discussions in Europe in the past too. What is very surprising though, is the mala-fide attempt to misrepresent and misinterpret the known facts. Let’s get some clear picture on this new report. The report names five countries led by India which are buying Russian oil and selling it to EU countries. These EU countries are part of an agreed ‘price cap coalition’. But it does not name ‘five EU’ countries which are still heavily buying that Russian oil. Neither the report highlights which one of them is the leading purchaser. Report tries to blame countries exporting processed Russian oil for circumventing sanctions. Surprisingly, it doesn’t blame any EU country buying same oil for circumventing same sanctions. It tries painting countries selling Russian oil products to EU countries as profiteering from the crisis. Obviously, report is silent about why Europeans are buying this oil at a premium after all.
The report, reflects a very disturbing trend almost racist one, on part of these so called ‘research firms’. The facts assessed are a knowledge available in the open domain, giving it a self-serving colour is highly regressive. Europe and its agencies need to grow out of imperial mindset. Selling and buying is a product of open market economy. There is a difference between government to government deal and private business. In any case the sheer burden of sanctions being abided should be an internal matter between Europe and US. It’s very convenient of them to forget that they have acted unilaterally on the issue. The world is unlikely to function on the cues from Europe on the matters of national interest.
