Ukraine crisis: Russian oil companies offer big discounts to India

Bankers said India should be extremely cautious before opening up trade with Russia amid sanctions as it should not be seen as funding Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As stringent sanctions imposed by the European Union and US  are crippling business and trade, desperate Russian oil companies are offering huge discounts to India, provided a payment mechanism to bypass the SWIFT ban is quickly approved by the government.

According to sources familiar with the development, Russian oil firms are offering 25-27 per cent discount to the dated Brent crude prices. State-run Rosneft is one the biggest oil companies that supply crude to India. During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in December last year, Rosneft and India Oil Corpo­ration signed a contract for the supply of up to