Russia has come up with a “banana scheme” for oil trade with India, – The Moscow Times

Difficulties have arisen with paying for oil, because Russian companies cannot accept it in dollars and euros.

Russia is forced to come up with new ways to return tens of billions of dollars in rupees stuck in India by expanding imports from that country. Thus, the Russian Federation plans to launch a banana scheme, which involves importing bananas from India, probably in exchange for rupees, writes The Moscow Times .

It is noted that the road has begun to be cleared for imports. In early February, Rosselkhoznadzor partially banned the import of bananas from Ecuador due to the discovery of a polyphagous humpback fly. The ban was adopted against the background of the decision of the Ecuadorian government to transfer Soviet weapons to the United States.

According to journalists, India is a major importer of Russian oil. Thus, in May 2023, supplies reached a record 2.15 million barrels per day, but have been declining since then. In December 2023, they fell to 1.48 million barrels per day.

The drop in volumes was due to problems with payment, because Russian oil companies cannot accept it in dollars and euros. Difficulties arose even when trying to transfer funds in dirhams.

Because of this, companies have accumulated huge amounts of Indian rupees in their accounts, which are difficult to convert into foreign currency. In August last year, about $39 billion was kept in Indian banks, which oil companies could not return to Russia, the publication indicated.

At the same time, India is the largest banana producer in the world, and Russia is an importer. The Russian Federation accounts for 21% of global purchases.

Russia: weapons and oil

Earlier, UNIAN wrote that Russia decided to impose “banana sanctions” against the Latin American state of Ecuador after the authorities of this country promised to transfer their old Russian-made weapons to Ukraine.

At the same time, Russian crude oil supplies to India continued to decline in January and hit a 12-month low. At the end of January, Russian oil imports to India fell to 1.3 million barrels per day, which is 4.2 percent less than in December, when the smallest amount of oil was supplied over the past year.

(C)UNIAN 2024