Indian Central Bank Adopts a Trade Agreement With Russia; Defies Western Sanctions Against Moscow
(Photo : MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019.
Proposals by the Indian Central Bank to allow trade with Russian despite western sanctions.

The Indian Central Bank is not complying with western sanctions heaped on Russia by skirting around it with alternatives to avoid adverse effects from these embargos.

Moscow was taken out of the Swift international banking system, and companies boycotted Russia. To survive this assault on the economy, the Kremlin is turning to China and India as lifelines and oil as trade to keep on earning to the dismay of the west.

India Allows Trade Deal With Russia

New Delhi is looking for the best alternative to allow exports to Moscow despite the embargo placed and rendering limited western payment schemes useless, the Express reported.

An agreement would allow India to persist in purchasing Russian energy and other products while preventing the repercussions of Western sanctions against Vladimir Putin.

The move risks diminishing Western nations such as the United States, which also imposed extraordinary sanctions on Moscow in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Reports from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), that a senior banker is talking with New Delhi and state banking institutions; how to go about enacting a new rupee-ruble trade agreement that will face opposition from the west.

According to the president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Dr. A Sakthivel, the rupee-rouble arrangement deal is requested from the government. They are now working on its particulars, citing the Financial Times.

The United States and most of its allies agreed to do the economic penalties but not all of them, trying to cut off foreign trade to stop Putin with non-military means.

Yet the Indian Central Bank wants to trade with Moscow even in the face of western sanctions.

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Isolation of Moscow from the Swift international banking system to stop the Russian Central Bank from accessing international reserves. These western penalties have been in effect since last month.

Several of the biggest banks in the country were also penalized. They are supposed to keep Moscow from global financial markets enough to hurt its economy.

But what Joe Biden did not count on is that his attitude towards certain countries like India would cause it to choose not to side with the US or Russia.

In effect, it is a snub that says that Washington is not as influential, especially when it needs the support of India.

The point of contention is that New Delhi has links with Russian defense firms from whom it buys its weapons.

India Beats Russian Sanctions

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to abstain from denouncing the incursion and has retained strong connections with President Putin, such as concerning the rescue operations of hundreds of Indian students from Ukraine due to Russia's war of aggression.

The west wanted to impose its will on a free country like India when it did not vote to call out the invasion, which the Biden administration pushed.

Last Tuesday, Ami Bera, one of the members of the US congress who is Indian American, said that New Delhi would not be pushed by any US influence to condemn Putin.

The Indian government runs a gambit if it would displease Washington that might endanger its trade agreement as over $50 billion worth of goods is bought from India every year.

Russia has been wise to keep good relations with India and China, unlike the White House that was snubbed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, noted USA Today.

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