US allies buy Russian gas worth billions of dollars, Donald Trump slaps India with penalty

Has President Donald Trump exposed the US hypocrisy over trade by imposing a 25% tariff on Indian goods plus a penalty for doing business with Russia? Though he has not said explicitly what it means and how much penalty India will have to pay for buying crude oil and military hardware from Russia, it is clear that he wants to punish New Delhi for having business ties with Moscow.  However, a cursory study reveals that most of the US allies continue to buy Russian gas even after the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine War. The EU and NATO member states are close to Washington and they have bought natural gas worth hundreds of billions of dollars from Moscow since the beginning of the war. These countries have bought Russian oil despite the US sanctions imposed on Russia. 

How much Russian gas do US allies buy?

According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Russia has sold fossil fuels worth more than $315 billion since the beginning of the Ukraine War. It has sold nearly half, or $149 billion, to the EU nations and even more to the NATO countries. It is interesting to note that the EU’s largest economy and one of the founding members of NATO, Germany, is the second-largest importer of Russian fossil fuels. It imported natural gas worth more than $12 billion. Besides, Germany also bought crude oil worth $13.3 billion and coal worth $0.7 billion. In total, Germany purchased Russian fuel worth $26. billion from February 2022 to February 2023. 

(US allies buy Russian gas)

NATO members buy Russian gas

Other NATO member states buying Russian fossil fuel are Turkey ($25.9 billion), the Netherlands ($18 billion), Italy ($14.8 billion), Poland ($12.1 billion), France ($9.5 billion), Belgium ($9.2 billion), and Hungary ($8.6 billion). Other NATO countries that buy fuel from Russia include Bulgaria ($6.4 billion), Slovakia ($6.2 billion), Spain ($5.8Vz billion), Austria ($5.7 billion), Greece ($ 4.5 billion), and the Czech Republic ($4,2 billion). 

India buys more oil from US

On the other hand, India is buying less oil from Russia. According to data from Kpler, a commodity market analytics firm, India imported 1.48 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Russia in February, down from 1.67 million bpd in the previous month. At the same time, India is buying more crude oil from the US. According to  Reuters, the U.S. exported about 3,57,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude to India in February, compared with exports of about 221,000 bpd last year.