Attempt to Cap Russian Crude Prices Reflects Failure of Western Sanctions, Indian Author Says
14:17 GMT 06.09.2022 (Updated: 18:02 GMT 08.12.2022)
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Ullekh N.P. is an Indian author and commentator who currently serves as the executive editor of the English-language Open Magazine.
Sputnik spoke to Ullekh about how relations between India and Russia have progressed since the escalation of the Ukraine crisis in February this year, what he makes of the US push to force India to draw down its reliance on Russia, as well as other issues.
Sputnik: Do you believe that the US-backed strategy to cap the price of Russian oil is a reflection of the failure on the part of the Joe Biden administration, which has failed to convince other countries to give up reliance on Russian energy exports despite threatening sanctions?
Ullekh: Thanks to certain smart measures on Russia's part, the country has managed to outwit or rather recover from the effects of the economic sanctions imposed by the US and other Western allies against Moscow. Interestingly, many of these Western allies in Europe still depend on Russian energy supplies.
While the US is not openly acknowledging it, many Western economists have now understood that Russia is recovering slowly from the sanctions, which don't seem to have affected it in any major way.
The very use of economic sanctions by the US are the same as economic weapons of mass destruction. In the long-term, the economic sanctions can have a huge impact on the people. So, these sanctions are too much of a punishment.
There is now also a backlash to all these measures, which were taken whimsically by the US in the first place.
3 September 2022, 16:07 GMT
What we are also witnessing now is a reversal of the globalization process taking place across the world. As necessity is the mother of all inventions, the threat of Western sanctions is prompting other countries to contemplate ways to move away from a dollar-centric global financial system, which has till now served American interests.
The people in other countries seem to have understood that the Western sanctions against Russia are failing on many counts. Therefore, the latest Western push to demand a cap on Russian oil exports is really a desperate measure on the part of the West.
Sputnik: American media recently reported that India has become one of the leading importers of Russian oil in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. Do you think there is a case for greater Russia-Indian energy cooperation in view of the current geopolitical situation and high crude prices?
Ullekh: India's intentions are not a secret to anyone and have been consistently iterated by Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar at various international fora.
India must ensure its energy security, and getting discounted crude from Russia is in India's interest. India has every reason to go for cheaper crude so that there is no energy deficit here. Maintaining India's energy security amid rising global crude prices is a priority for New Delhi.
And India and Russia have always been diplomatic allies. Right from independence in 1947, Moscow has supported India's efforts in developing public sector enterprises and even came to New Delhi's support in the 1971 War of Liberation, when the US backed Pakistan. Moscow has always been an all-weather friend for India, and not just a fair-weather friend.
So, there is also reciprocity from New Delhi towards Russia.
In diplomacy, friendships have to be meticulously maintained so that each country has something to gain from cultivating friendly ties.
Even the US is friends with several autocratic regimes in regions such as the Middle East, but nobody talks about the rise of global terrorism (in the context of these American partnerships).
However, in the case of India and Russia, the friendship has been mutually beneficial and also very meaningful. Moreover, it continues to grow. And, I am glad that it is continuing to grow.
Sputnik: What do you think are the underlying reasons of the Ukraine crisis? Do you share the Russian view that Western powers, primarily the US, are to be blamed for the crisis since they didn't respect Moscow's security concerns in Eastern Europe?
Ullekh: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is not a defensive entity as it claims it is. It's an out and out offensive entity. And if you look at the history of NATO, as the great journalist John Pilger has repeatedly warned us, it's a "divider-in-chief" of nations.
And it's not just the Russians who said that NATO has been in the wrong, some top-notch economists and strategists based in the US are also saying so. They include people such as former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as well as well-known scholars.
There were previous warnings from scholars such as the late Stephen Cohen (who passed away in 2020) who predicted that Ukraine would be a big problem for the US, should Washington decide to use Kiev to create a bulwark against Moscow. Some of these warnings came as early as in 2015.
Now, NATO promised back in the 1990s that it wouldn't undertake any expansion around the Russian borders in Eastern Europe in line with what Moscow demanded as a security guarantee. The Russian response we are [witnessing] now is against NATO's extremely whimsical, expansionist policy and NATO's policy of encircling Russia.
Even the US won't tolerate any kind of military base or military expansion along its borders. And naturally, I mean, they have the Monroe Doctrine, which affords the US the right to militarily attack any country which it sees as a threat.
In the case of [the] Ukraine [crisis], I don't feel that there was any intention on the part of the Russian authorities to escalate the crisis.
On the other hand, the signals from NATO allies since 2008 have been rather clear, including a proposal to make Ukraine a NATO member in spite of Moscow's reservations against such a move. What we are seeing now is that Ukraine hasn't become a NATO member, but Kiev is being used by both the US and NATO to target Russia. [So] to say that the war was started by Russia [means] missing a big point.
Sputnik: How should India view the growing partnership between China and Russia against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis? Should New Delhi be concerned about that at all?
Ullekh: India is also very close to the United States, although militarily India is not on the same page as the US in [the] Ukraine [crisis]. The US is India's biggest trading partner and I see that that trend will continue.
And as far as China-US trade relations are concerned, they are also robust, while the US and Russia are not on good terms at all.
I think each and every country is entitled to having special relations with each and every other nation in the world. Unless you are the US, you shouldn't be overly worried about these relations. Only the US is fidgety about such relations. The US wants other countries to treat its enemies as their enemies. India doesn't really look forward to such relationships.
I have often said that the US is a country that gets very nervous about their friends engaging with so-called "enemies."
I believe the US government tries to create tensions elsewhere in order to divert the American public's attentions from problems at home, which has been the hallmark of Washington's foreign policy for decades now.
American institutions are suffering a credibility crisis among the people.
I believe that the American institutions are facing the same credibility crisis that erstwhile Soviet institutions faced in the 1980s, which ultimately contributed to the collapse of the USSR.
Now coming back to the question, there are already many things for India to worry about. One must remember New Delhi continues to be part of several regional blocs (such as BRICS and SCO) in the neighborhood.
4 February 2022, 11:33 GMT
And India is also close to the US. But India doesn't want to be treated as a vassal state or an unequal partner. You know, India doesn't want to listen to each and everything that America says it must do.
So, there are differences between the US and India, but there is also a great deal of convergence when it comes to the strategic interests.
Sputnik: Have organizations such as BRICS and the SCO gained more prominence in India's foreign policy since the Ukraine crisis erupted? What do you feel about that?
Ullekh: No, I think that these organizations have not become more important than they already used to be before the Ukraine crisis began in February.
But, India is [now] concerned about certain steps that China might want to take to convert these fora into anti-Western platforms, which is not in New Delhi's strategic interests. So, India will definitely use all resources at its disposal to not let that transformation take place.
India's stated policy has been to take its own decisions that are in the economic and strategic interests. So, India's policy defies American diktat. As regards Russia, India would always uphold its strategic interests by protecting its ties with Moscow as well.
Sputnik: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been incarcerated in a British prison and now faces the prospect of being extradited to the US, where he faces jail time for publishing American war crimes during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. How do you view the role of the US in the whole Julian Assange saga?
Ullekh: You know, America is the biggest villain because what Julian Assange did was what no other journalist [has] done.
And many journalists on the payroll of Western organizations and who are part of Western mainstream media were brainwashed into thinking Julian Assange is not a journalist and doesn't actually know what journalism means, which is about speaking truth to power.
What he has done is he exposed war crimes by the United States.
The duplicity is that the US is the so-called "fatherland of journalism." But Noam Chomsky has reminded us in his book "Manufacturing Consent" that Americans want to appear as pro-freedom and they have constitutional provisions to ensure that there is freedom of the press, which is our right. It's a great idea.
But now, the US is going after one of those people who championed freedom of the press more than anyone else in the world. And by exposing such war crimes, what Assange has done is deliver great justice to the whole world. He is a hero of our times and it's a tragedy that he's in jail.
It is a tragedy of great proportions. It's a humiliation. It's a blot on journalists who are still supportive of the US' motive to have him extradited. President Joe Biden, as a Democrat, should ideally come out in public and say that they are not going to go ahead with his extradition.
