Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

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This is extremely incorrect. India is buying Russian gas and cooperating on payment networks to bypass American sanctions: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-using-swift-global...

The connection between the subcontinent and Russia is longstanding. Socialism was foundational to the post-independence government organization of both India and Bangladesh. My mom grew up reading Russian literature that has been translated into Bangla. Both India and Bangladesh abstained from a UN vote that called for Russia to remove troops from Ukraine: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-explains-why...

As to China, it is all over India and Bangladesh, loaning money for infrastructure projects, etc. China is building the new subway in Dhaka: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1256874.shtml. I had hoped for more alignment of India and Bangladesh with the Anglosphere after the fall of the Soviet Union, but things have absolutely gone in the opposite direction. Russia, China, and India are an almost complete alternative to the west. There is very little that can’t be handled using home grown solutions in one of those three countries, and that list is getting shorter daily.

>India is buying Russian gas

There is no expectation that every country in the world cease buying Russian fuels, that's why the price cap was put in place. And India is abiding the price cap. The hysteria about developing countries buying Russian oil/gas is mostly from the media, but so long as Russia is barely hitting breakeven prices then there is little reason for Western governments to care where India or others get their energy from.

Europe is cutting their dependence because it was/is actively being used as a weapon against them.

Both India and China have rejected the price cap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_crude_oil_price_c.... The price cap drove market prices lower, and India has continued to buy at market price. The reason the price cap was so high was because negotiations in mid-2022 revealed that developing nations wouldn’t go along.

In practice, they are abiding the price cap, even if they haven't made any official statements stating such.

https://archive.is/Pry3x

I mean... if they neither "defects" (leading, potentially, to lack of supply for the other) and bids higher, they're benefiting from cheap fuel, right? Seems like they still sorta win, the only cost of abiding is that if they raised their bids they might be able to buy more of their overall fuel consumption at a higher (but still below-the-rest-of-the-market) rate, probably amounting to little further savings (and maybe none—if all major buyers defect and offer to pay more, the price of Russian fuel would approach that on the rest of the market). They can secretly hand-shake with one another on sticking to the cap, and just not say so publicly, leaving their options open. Doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice on their part, they'd have to really want to give "the West" the middle finger to not abide by the cap, I'd think.

Only because the EU set the price cap higher than India was already paying: https://www.opindia.com/2022/12/india-does-not-support-the-g...

> Since Indian refiners are already getting Russian crude at $60 a barrel or below, there will hardly be a negative impact of the price cap on India

India and China’s official position is still that they’re not abusing by the price cap. Obviously they’re not going to pay more than what they were paying just to violate the cap. Trying to spin this as a win for the EU is odd.

>This is extremely incorrect. India is buying Russian gas and cooperating on payment networks to bypass American sanctions

Not participating in western sanctions isn't "providing assistance", it's the default state. That being said, it's interesting that BRICS countries aren't selling weapons to Russia and it has to get them from Iran and North Korea.

India has increased its Russian oil imports by a factor of 33: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-16/india-now...

Western countries expect everyone to abide by sanctions. When other countries don’t go along, it’s not the “default state” it’s a political statement. For example, India did ultimately stop buying Iranian oil: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/did-india-need-to-sto...

> it's interesting that BRICS countries aren't selling weapons to Russia

Russia is far ahead of even China when it comes to military technology and others in terms of industrial weapon production capacity.

Russian rockets are currently lifting US astronauts into space and Chinese aircraft into the air.

Someone has to buy Russian gas/oil, as gas/oil prices will skyrocket otherwise. EU and US governments do understand it very well.

yeah. some people here aren't grasping that it's important to the "western" nations that india does in fact buy russian oil and gas. Any words in public otherwise are just for show.

> As to China, it is all over India and Bangladesh, loaning money

Pakistan and Sri Lanka, yes china loans to them. India definitely not. Bangladesh I am not sure.

China definitely loans to India, though often indirectly: https://www.cfr.org/blog/why-washington-should-care-about-in...

> China launched the AIIB in 2013 in order to bolster and facilitate the BRI across Asia. Beijing possesses 30 percent of voting shares in the bank, resulting in effective veto power over any funding decisions that require a supermajority. Yet not only is India, which considers China to be its biggest geopolitical threat, a founding member of the bank, but it also constitutes its largest borrower, relying on AIIB loans for COVID-19 aid and to fund multiple domestic infrastructure projects.

There are a lot of people in Bangladesh that are not very happy with Indian domination re: Teesta river, Adani loans, etc. Moreover I think they are more anti-NATO rather than pro-Russia.

I think it’s fair to say they’re more anti-NATO than pro-Russia.

I should say PPA technically rather than loans but Adani turned around and took loans from Indian state owned lenders to build the plant which they will probably not be too worried about repaying anytime soon let alone with the money they will make off of BD if PPA isn’t cancelled

https://m.thewire.in/article/business/numbers-suggest-bangla...

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/adani-power-s...

https://m.thewire.in/article/business/heads-adani-wins-tails...

> India is buying Russian gas and cooperating on payment networks to bypass American sanctions

Maybe it's time for the US and it's NATO allies to start restricting visas for nationals from misbehaving allies.

I guess the population won't mind since they can still immigrate/follow opportunities in Russia instead of NATO countries.

Racist much? How about targeting Europe that continues to buy Russian gas?

I think you're being facetious, but Russia is one of the top 4 countries in the world for immigration: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigrati...

And one of the top 3 for emigration. Smart Russians are leaving at a never seen before pace.

That is a great racist take.

You share a link from Chinese state mídia lol

Even Saudi are turning on us (USA). Under the previous administration, they were a semi-reliable partner. This is going to have disastrous consequences for the dollar.

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