A sanctions bill moving through the US Congress would, if enacted, authorise punitive “secondary” trade measures ~ potentially including tariffs as high as 500 per cent ~ against countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, petroleum products or uranium. In India, the headline number naturally grabs attention. But the story is bigger than India alone, and it deserves a more sober reading. First, Washington’s argument is not frivolous.

The US position ~ stated repeatedly across administrations ~ is that large-scale energy purchases from Russia help sustain state revenues that, directly or indirectly, underpin President Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine war effort. In principle, that is hard to dispute. And India’s Russia-linked energy exposure is not a timeless feature of our import basket. Before the Ukraine war and the subsequent disruption of traditional flows, Russia was not a dominant supplier for India. The post-2022 surge was driven by discounted barrels offered........

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