Russia will begin purchasing gasoline from India
Russian authorities are preparing to launch large-scale gasoline imports from India to offset fuel shortages in the domestic market. This is evidenced by a draft amendment to the Tax Code aimed at stabilizing the fuel sector, according to reports by Russian media on June 24.
The document provides for the introduction of budget subsidies for oil companies that purchase gasoline abroad. The support is to operate within the framework of the so-called “damping mechanism,” which has been used in Russia for about eight years to curb the rise in retail fuel prices.
The amount of subsidies for imported gasoline produced outside the Eurasian Economic Union is planned to be calculated based on the indicative price on the Indian market and the cost of transporting fuel from Indian ports. According to sources, the State Duma’s Budget and Taxes Committee has already endorsed the initiative, and it could be adopted directly in the second and third readings.
In recent years, India has become one of the key buyers of Russian oil following the outbreak of full-scale war against Ukraine. At the same time, significant volumes of this raw material, after refining, return to the global market in the form of petroleum products, particularly diesel and gasoline. Some of India’s fuel is exported to Asian countries.
Amid intensifying drone attacks on Russian oil refining infrastructure, the fuel situation in Russia has become significantly more complicated. In 2026, the number of strikes on oil refineries increased, leading to a drop in oil refining volumes to their lowest levels in the past two decades. Gasoline production is estimated to have fallen by about a quarter.
Analysts note that the gasoline shortage in Russia’s domestic market may currently amount to about 20% of consumption needs. Current production levels and imports from Belarus are insufficient to fully cover the shortfall, which is estimated at tens of thousands of metric tons of fuel per day.
As a reminder, the fuel crisis in Russia is intensifying: gasoline is disappearing from gas stations and lines are growing.
Russia has allowed the use of lower-quality gasoline due to the fuel crisis.
