A crude shock from Moscow: Testing times for India's energy security

Russia now accounts for a little less than half of India's oil imports but the current political instability raises serious questions about the long-term reliability of supply

These are testing times for India’s energy security. Nearly one of two barrels of crude oil imported into the country comes from Russia — the highest ever for any crude-supplying nation — a country that after last week’s mutiny by a close associate of President Vladimir Putin looks increasingly unstable to be reliant on for large purchases of oil.

Civil war in Russia was averted after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, prevailed upon Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner group, which supplies private armies to nations to fight wars including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. An