The sanctions forced Russia to sharply increase hydrocarbon supplies to relatively "friendly" India and China, which, taking advantage of Russia's weak position, are knocking out gigantic discounts on Russian fuel. Lacking adequate export alternatives, Russia is forced to flood India and China with its cheap oil, writes Reuters.

According to the results of May, Russia overtook the long-term leader, Saudi Arabia, in terms of oil supplies to China: over the past month, exports reached almost 8.42 million tons against 7.82 million tons from Riyadh. The agency notes that year-on-year growth amounted to a record 55%, and in comparison with April - almost 25%. Oil was delivered to China both by tankers by sea and via the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline.

The agency explains the sharp increase in purchases by the discounts that Russian suppliers are ready to provide in exchange for volumes. The publication also notes that against the backdrop of a drop in oil prices due to COVID restrictions, China has increased oil supplies from another sanctioned country - Iran, which now accounts for about 7% of all Chinese oil imports. The publication calls the state-owned companies Sinopec and Zhenhua Oil the leaders in the purchase of Russian oil. Another BRICS partner of Russia, Brazil, suffered the most from the rebalancing of supplies. China cut imports from the South American country by 19%.

India is showing similar dynamics, which has increased supplies not only of cheap oil from Russia, but also of coal, the share of which, according to Reuters estimates, has increased six-fold over the past 20 days. The dynamics of oil purchases is even stronger: the agency estimates a 31-fold increase in volume, to $2.2 billion. The agency notes that Russia is ready to offer a discount on hydrocarbons up to 30% of the market value.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has faced unprecedented pressure. The United States, Great Britain and the European Union have agreed to impose an oil embargo, and also introduced a number of other restrictions that significantly complicate the supply of Russian oil around the world. For a long time, the risks of falling under secondary sanctions forced large state-owned companies in China and India to abandon Russian products, but huge discounts forced them to change their minds . Publicly, representatives of the US and the EU have not yet spoken about secondary sanctions for cooperation with the Russian Federation, but informally the US asked India "not to increase oil purchases too rapidly."