Russia has 'special mechanisms' to supply oil to India, embassy official says
Russia has a "very, very special mechanism" to continue oil supplies to India, Roman Babushkin, the charge d'affaires at the Russian embassy in India, told reporters at a press briefing, adding that India's crude oil imports from Russia will remain at the same level.
No dates had been finalised for the Putin-Modi meeting yet, he said.
The U.S. is set to impose an additional 25% tariff on Indian exports on August 28, citing their imports of Russian oil, which expanded after Western nations sanction Russian supply after its invasion of Ukraine.
However, the U.S. has stopped short of imposing similar tariffs on China over its purchases of Russian oil.
Last month, the European Union sanctioned Russian-backed Indian refinery Nayara Energy, leading the refiner to cut back processing and companies to curtail their trading with them.
Trade between Indian and Russia was expected to grow 10% annually, Evgeniy Griva, Deputy Trade Representative of Russia to India said at the briefing.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
a minute ago
- The Independent
Classrooms to be fitted with AI face-recognition to track student attendance in India
A state in southern India is facing severe backlash from child rights activists and experts after the authorities proposed to introduce an AI face recognition system to keep track of students' attendance. The Department of School Education and Literacy in Karnataka is planning to use mobile phone-based facial recognition to mark attendance in the Students Achievement Tracking System (SATS) – the government's database for monitoring students. The facial recognition system will also be used to track beneficiaries of government welfare schemes such as midday meals, where pupils are provided lunches under the largest free-food-in-school programme in the world, the authorities earlier said. The state government said it developed a separate mobile application, with the attendance system set to be implemented in the 2025–2026 academic year. According to The Hindu, all student information has already been added to the Students Achievement Tracking System. The system can recognise students' faces in real time using facial recognition technology. Once the image is captured through the mobile application, it will be encrypted and converted into a unique identification code, which cannot be reverse-engineered. Officials said this would ensure privacy and data security. A coalition of educationists, teachers' unions, parents' groups, and civil society organisations has warned the Karnataka government that the facial recognition system could expose children to severe risks of data misuse, exploitation, and abuse. The coalition of 31 experts and organisations wrote to chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday, urging the government to roll back the initiative. 'Schools are supposed to be protected spaces,' the letter read. The signatories warned that facial data of children, if leaked or stolen, could have 'unimaginable consequences, including falling into the hands of child traffickers and criminals'. The coalition also expressed concerns over possible sexual exploitation, given the rise in deepfake tools. 'By introducing surveillance through facial recognition, we are creating vulnerabilities for children instead of protecting them. Schools must remain safe spaces, not zones of surveillance,' Niranjanaradhya VP, the convener of the People's Alliance for Fundamental Right to Education, was quoted by The Indian Express as saying. He said that the government already mandates School Development and Monitoring Committees in every school. 'If these are strengthened and supported, they can ensure far greater accountability than any surveillance tool ever could,' Mr Niranjanaradhya added. The state government said a total of 52,686 schools would be covered under this facial recognition programme, including 46,460 government and 6,226 aided ones. The application is equipped to monitor the attendance of more than 525,500 pupils, it said. Last year, Farida Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, called for a ban on the use of facial recognition technologies in educational institutions.
The Independent
a minute ago
- The Independent
Taiwanese court sentences ex-legislator's son for illegal fuel transfers to North Korea
The son of a former Taiwanese legislator has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for a scheme that illegally supplied thousands of tons of fuel oil to North Korea. Huang Chung-wei was sentenced to 28 months in prison by the district court in the southern port city of Kaohsiung on Tuesday. Five others also received prison terms. They were convicted of taking part in loading the fuel onto ships in Taiwan and making the transfers in collaboration with Kwek Kee Seng, a Singaporean businessman wanted by the U.S. whose whereabouts were unknown. Such activity is a violation of Taiwan's Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and other statutes. the court said. Illegal transfers at sea are one of the few ways North Korea, an authoritarian dictatorship considered one of the world's biggest violators of human rights, can obtain fuel because of strict United Nations sanctions against its nuclear weapons and missile programs. While Taiwan is not a UN member at the insistence of North Korean ally China, it has pledged to follow all of the world body's rulings on Pyongyang. The case against Huang dates back to 2019, when he and Kwek allegedly purchased a fleet of tankers, loaded them with fuel and sent them to make the transfers. North Korea is known to operate a 'shadow fleet' of ships operating without active electronic identification equipment. However, U.S. intelligence agencies were able to track the transfers by satellite and provided the information to Kaohsiung investigators, the court said. . Huang's father was a member of Taiwan's legislature for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. It wasn't clear how much money he made from the scheme or whether he would appeal the sentence.
The Independent
a minute ago
- The Independent
Trump is ready to ‘crush' the Russian economy if Putin doesn't meet with Zelensky, says Lindsey Graham
Sen. Lindsey Graham has said that Donald Trump is ready to 'crush' the Russian economy if Vladimir Putin refuses to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky in the coming weeks to discuss an end to the Ukraine war. Graham has reportedly been pressuring Trump for months to support a sweeping sanctions bill designed to punish the Kremlin by placing massive tariffs on any country that continues to buy Russian oil and gas, thereby indirectly helping to bankroll its invasion of its western neighbor state. The legislation would most obviously hurt rival superpowers China and India, who currently account for 70 percent of Russia's energy exports and would face 500 percent U.S. tariffs if it were to be enacted. The Independent 's Owen Matthews has argued that Zelensky's European allies have already missed their opportunity to hold Putin to account by starving Russia of fossil fuel revenues. However, the senator believes there is still time. 'If we don't have this thing moving in the right direction by the time we get back, then I think that plan B needs to kick in,' Graham told the Associated Press in a phone interview this week. His bipartisan bill has been endorsed by 85 of his fellow senators to date, but does not have the expressed support of the White House. Graham argues that its moment may come when the upper chamber of Congress reconvenes in September following its summer recess. Graham said he had spoken to Trump on Tuesday, a day after he hosted several European heads of state and senior officials at the White House, including Zelensky, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Giorgia Meloni, Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte. 'Trump believes that if Putin doesn't do his part, that he's going to have to crush his economy. Because you've got to mean what you say,' Graham told reporters in his home state after his call with the president. 'There will come a point where if it's clear that Putin is not going to entertain peace, that President Trump will have to back up what he said he would do. And the best way to do it is to have congressional blessing.' Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat in support of Graham's bill, has warned against excessive optimism regarding the prospects of a peace deal, given that the Russian leader emerged from his Alaska summit with Trump last week without making any definite commitments, suggesting he could be employing 'rope-a-dope' tactics. 'The only way to bring Putin to the table is to show strength,' Blumenthal told the AP. 'What Putin understands is force and pressure.'
