India defiant over Russian crude

Oil minister pushes back against criticism of his country’s approach to Russia

“We will buy [oil] from Russia; we will buy from wherever,” Hardeep Singh Puri, Indian minister of petroleum and natural gas, declared during a televised interview at the Gastech conference in Milan. The minister emphasised his “moral duty to my consumer” and stated his country has no conflict with Russia. Refusing to be drawn on the morality of continuing to purchase Russian crude, Puri stated that “it is a question of energy” and that he has a “democratic duty... what we have to do domestically, is insulate our own population" against inflationary pressures and the "interlinked crises of fuel, food and fertiliser” availability. India will therefore consider the G7 proposals to cap Russian