Quote from: Sithara007 on Today at 05:44:01 AM

Quote from: DrBeer on March 08, 2023, 09:14:38 AM

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And India also "uses" Russia to the fullest using its helplessness - it will buy oil for rupees (then Russia does not know where to put the rupees), then it forces the "friend" to sell oil for pennies.
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Well.. that is wrong. A majority of the oil trade between India and Russia is conducted through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates, and the payment is being done using United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED). Some of the trade is also being done using the Chinese Yuan (CNY). These "intermediaries" are mostly Russian nationals based in the UAE. They are the ones who provide freight and insurance and they earn close to $15 per barrel. Indians wanted to make payments using the Indian Rupee, but the Russian exporters are not much interested. And the trade balance between the two countries have swung to Russia's favor, with Russia exporting goods valued at more than 10 times of what it imports from India.

I researched this issue and came to the conclusion that the claims that India and China are buying Russian hydrocarbons at a big discount are greatly exaggerated ....

In this respect, Russia has not become dependent on India and China. India and China do not have the ability to dictate the terms of the deal to Russia.

This is due to the fact that currently India and China have no alternative suppliers of oil and natural gas. Arab countries and the US are now supplying hydrocarbons to Europe. After all, Europe has abandoned Russian oil and gas. European countries are now buying hydrocarbons from other suppliers. And these other suppliers, respectively, are not currently working with India and China.

Therefore, Russian hydrocarbons are sold to these two countries at normal market prices.

At the same time, Russia incurs losses in the form of increased transportation costs for the delivery of hydrocarbons to the seaports of India and China.