>Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to stand firm in the face of what he termed "the politics of economic selfishness."

Modi is right.. but also India is buying Russian oil because it's cheap not because it's selfless.

If you hear it from Indians on social media, there's been no benefit to the locals with that cheap oil. In fact they've been rolling out e20 and people are dealing with unscrupulous sellers causing car issues.

Only oil companies in India are benefiting (plus close political friends) from Russian oil.

> If you hear it from Indians on social media, there's been no benefit to the locals with that cheap oil.

How do people on social media know how Russian oil impacts avg Indian ?

Do you have any better sources instead of shit people say on social media ?

Trump is a buffoon. He’s destroying the only alliance that matters for maintaining American hegemonic power. Without India, there isn’t a real competition with China. It’s also weird given he is softer on China than on India or many European countries. Almost as if he stands to benefit from being soft on China.

This focus on Russian oil also seems oddly hypocritical. Why is America buying things from authoritarian China? Where’s the outrage against that?

He's softer on China because China correctly sees him as a loony bin to be ignored rather than try to rationalize him or "deal" with him. If you are trying to play a game with a loony bin you already lost. Even a little bit of pushback and either he has forgotten or he silently relents on whatver loony crap he was mouthing ten minutes ago.

I heard George Friedman on the GP Futures podcast yesterday saying that the US considers present-day India to be a minor player. Sacrificing India to bring Russia to the negotiating table and to signal to China that it is not being encircled is a low-risk high-reward play. No one is going to remember this in a couple of decades when India will be big enough to matter.

He accepts that the US is being hypocritical when it asks India to stop buying Russian oil while it has its own dealings with Russia. But it is the implementation of the adage "do as I say, not as I do" to politics. Basically, the US does what it wants because it can.

This is precisely why I pay zero attention to arguments based on morality/hypocrisy/do-the-right-thing in politics/geopolitics. Might was/is/will always be right.

(I heard that episode.)

I'm reminded of Richard Nixon's explanation for his diplomatic opening towards China: according to Nixon, the only countries that matter are the US, the European countries, the USSR, Japan and China.

I think you're giving Trump way too much credit. The evidence of his first impeachment was that he ran US foreign policy for his own enrichment and benefit. No reason to think he's doing differently now. There's also Trump's racism to factor in.

I'm not a Trump fan but after about a dozen proclamations that Putin has to change his ways and has two weeks or else, I think this is the first time Trump has actually put meaningful sanctions against Russia?

Which is kind of progress. Changing borders through invasions is not good and hitting Russia's oil income is maybe the best way to try to make them rethink.