Indian Banks Avoid Working with Russia

The tightening of American financial sanctions, which has led banks in China, Turkey, and other 'friendly' countries to increasingly refrain from dealing with Russia, has impacted transactions with another major trading partner of the Kremlin.

In New Delhi, Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov announced that Indian banks are hesitant to participate in trade transactions with Russia. Indian credit institutions with ties to the United States are "concerned about U.S. secondary sanctions," he complained.

According to Alipov, Moscow hopes to resolve the issue at the BRICS level. "It's important that Russia, China, India, and South Africa have equal rights in solving global economic issues," Alipov noted.

At the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed launching an alternative payment system for resolving payment-related issues. According to the Kremlin's idea, it could include a SWIFT analogue, mechanisms for transactions with digital assets, as well as a commodity exchange and even its own currency, a prototype of which was ceremonially presented by Putin to the guests.

Since the onset of the war with Ukraine, India has become Russia's second-largest trading partner and the second-largest buyer of Russian oil, following China. However, the Kremlin has failed to establish mutual supplies of Indian goods to the Russian Federation over the past two years. Imports from India amount to a mere $4.2 billion annually, still lagging behind European imports, despite being at the lowest levels since the late 1990s (in August, it reached €2.5 billion according to Eurostat data).