India’s Neutrality, Ambani’s Profits
India likes to present itself as a responsible global player, the kind of country that balances principle with pragmatism. But when you dig into its role in the Russian oil trade since the Ukraine war, that image feels shaky. Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has ended up as the biggest winner. His company, Reliance Industries, has cornered a massive share of Russian crude imports and exports, leaving the impression that India’s neutrality isn’t really about balance, it’s about profit.
India’s Neutral Stance Fuels Reliance’s Massive Gains from Russian Oil Imports
The numbers tell their own story. India now imports around 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil every day. Of that, Reliance and Rosneft-owned Nayara Energy grab most of it. Instead of making fuel cheaper at home or strengthening India’s state-owned refiners, the cheap crude flows into private hands. The Jamnagar refinery of Reliance’s has become the centrepiece of this arrangement. It processes millions of barrels, but two-thirds of what it refines gets shipped abroad rather than used at home. By June 2025, nearly half of all oil imported into India came from Russia, and Reliance alone accounted for 71 percent of India’s fuel exports. That’s a staggering concentration of wealth and power in the hands of one company.
What makes this so striking is how the game works. The West has sanctioned Moscow to limit its revenue. Yet Indian refiners buy Russian oil at a discount, process it, and then sell it to Europe and Asia at premium rates.
In effect, Reliance acts as a middleman as Russia still gets its cash, Europe still gets its fuel, and Reliance makes billions. The only group left out of this cycle is the Indian public, who still pay international prices at the pump. The promise of cheap crude helping ordinary people has turned out to be an illusion.
That’s where the charge of duplicity comes in. India officially says it’s neutral on Ukraine and must think about its own energy security. Fair enough.
But if that was really the priority, wouldn’t the people of India expect some relief for domestic consumers? Instead, what we see looks more like a state-enabled windfall for a handful of oligarchs.
Public refiners, which are supposed to safeguard national interest, are sidelined. The private players close to power get to dominate.
It’s impossible to separate Ambani’s role in all this from his political connections. He’s not just another businessman who happened to be in the right place at the right time. His closeness to Modi is well known, and time after time government policies have tilted the field in his favour. What we’re watching is not just capitalism at work but a fusion of state power and corporate power. It’s been enormously profitable for Ambani, but for India it brings reputational damage and deeper dependence on Russian crude.
Profiting Amid Russia Sanctions
There’s a bitter irony here. India often positions itself as the voice of the Global South, speaking out against inequality and unfairness in the global system. Yet in this case, it is running what looks like a sanctions loophole that strengthens Russia while worsening inequality at home. The rhetoric is about fairness, and the reality is about money. And abroad, the message is clear that India will invoke global norms when convenient but bend them when profits are on the table.
Of course, India isn’t the only country to exploit these gaps. Turkey, the UAE, even parts of Europe have done similar things. But the sheer scale of India’s involvement sets it apart. Every second barrel of crude coming into the country now originates in Russia. That kind of dependency isn’t just a matter of economics. It gives Moscow leverage, whether India admits it or not.
There’s also a risk for Reliance itself. So far, Washington has chosen not to act, largely because it needs India as a partner against China.
But patience isn’t infinite. If a future US administration decides India has gone too far, Ambani’s global empire could find itself under scrutiny or even sanctions. Reliance is too big and too international to assume it’s safe forever.
Inside India, though, the bigger question is about fairness. Millions of Indians are struggling with high fuel costs and economic uncertainty, yet they watch one man’s fortune multiply thanks to global arbitrage. It feeds the sense that the system is wired for the connected few, not the many. When power and profit converge so openly, it risks corroding faith in the idea of equal opportunity.
There’s no simple fix. Countries will always act in their own interest, and energy security is a legitimate goal. But India had options. It could have used discounted Russian crude to strengthen its public refiners or ease domestic fuel prices. Instead, it funnelled the benefits to a small circle of corporate elites.
Looking back years from now, this won’t just be remembered as Russia’s way around sanctions. It will also be seen as India’s moment of choosing profits over principle. Reliance, backed by Modi’s patronage, has become the face of that choice. For Ambani, it’s billions more in wealth. For India, it’s a reputation stained by opportunism and a public left to pay the price.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are exclusively those of the author and do not reflect the official stance, policies, or perspectives of the Platform.
