India’s Defiance Could Reshape the Oil Chessboard

Washington’s standoff with New Delhi over Russian crude imports has become a telling measure of the effectiveness and limits of Western sanctions. India has eased back slightly on purchases of Urals barrels, trimming perhaps three to five hundred thousand barrels per day, but the overall message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been firm. Cheap Russian oil remains too valuable to give up, and the political mood at home rewards defiance rather than retreat. For the United States, the dilemma is clear. A threatened rise…