Russia Imports Gasoline From India Amid Drone-Strike Fuel Crisis
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Russia started importing gasoline from India by sea, with at least 60,000 metric tons already dispatched and two tankers carrying 30,000–40,000 tons each en route, according to Reuters sources.
- Fuel shortages are rippling across Russia's 11 time zones, prompting rationing, long filling-station queues, and record gasoline price increases in several regions.
- Moscow plans to import up to 400,000 metric tons of gasoline monthly from several countries until domestic supplies recover; Belarus nearly tripled rail shipments in the first half of June to over 70,000 metric tons.
- Vladimir Putin acknowledged Ukrainian strikes caused shortages in several regions but told state TV the attacks "absolutely do not affect the situation on the front," and called for faster air-defence buildout against drones.
- Russia's parliament approved tax-code amendments including subsidies for imported fuel with costs explicitly linked to delivery expenses from India.
- India's crude imports from Russia hit a record in June at roughly 2.7 million barrels per day, with Russian crude accounting for over half of India's total — up sharply from 36.5% in May, per Kpler data.
- Putin dismissed Volodymyr Zelenskyy's proposal to limit long-range strikes as an effort to ease military pressure on Kyiv's forces, and rejected a face-to-face meeting.
Why it matters: Russia, one of the world's largest energy exporters, is now importing gasoline to keep domestic pumps running — a rare reversal driven by Ukrainian drone strikes that have forced rationing across 11 time zones. The shift deepens Russia's wartime dependence on India (now over half its crude imports) and Belarus, exposing how infrastructure damage is reshaping an energy relationship Moscow once dominated.
