‘Turkey ships more Russian oil to Europe than India’: Energy expert rips Trump’s tariff logic – BusinessToday

Energy expert Dr. Anas Al Hajji has challenged the Trump administration’s justification for imposing steep tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil, arguing that other countries, including Turkey and China, import far more without facing the same accusations. 

“Turkey imports a massive amount of natural gas, petroleum products from Russia. No one accused Turkey of supporting the war. And the fact is Turkey exports more petroleum products to Europe out of Russian oil than India. And no one accused it of supporting the war. China imports a massive amount of natural gas and oil from Russia. No one accused China of that,” Al Hajji said in an interview with The Core.

He called out what he described as inconsistencies in U.S. policy. “Last month, 12% of EU natural gas imports came from Russia, and no one accused them of supporting the war in Russia. In fact, US imports from Russia increased over the year, and no one accused the Trump administration of supporting the war,” he said.

The Trump administration has imposed 50% tariffs on Indian goods, with 25% specifically tied to New Delhi’s crude purchases from Moscow. The White House has accused India of funding Vladimir Putin’s war machine in Ukraine, but Al Hajji dismissed that rationale.

“It is very hard to believe that the tariff is really about importing Russian oil. I think there is more to the story. India, based on the population, is the largest market in the world, and everyone wants access to that market. So is it about that? Well, that’s a better explanation than the Russian oil imports,” he said.

Al Hajji also questioned the EU’s stance on Russian energy. “The war’s been raging since February 2022 and they still import energy from Russia until today. And now they are saying, ‘Oh, we will ban LNG imports by 2027.’ Morally this is not acceptable,” he said. He noted that France had inserted conditions to shield companies with long-term contracts from penalties and arbitration, making a complete ban unlikely.

On the battlefield, Al Hajji highlighted how Washington’s electoral calculations influenced Ukraine’s strategy against Russian energy infrastructure. “Since the beginning of 2024, Ukraine started using drones to hit Russian refiners, but they did not hit any crude oil facilities or any crude oil export facilities. The Biden administration warned them not to hit it because they did not want higher oil prices before re-election,” he said.

He added that under Trump, Ukraine initially received the same warning, but recent strikes suggest a change. “Now we are coming into the fourth quarter, where we might end up with lower demand, lower prices. And all of a sudden, we’ve seen Ukraine for the first time hitting crude export facilities. They’ve done it three times so far in the last two weeks. And it is very clear that they’ve done it with a green light from the Trump administration simply because of lower prices,” he said.

Al Hajji said Russia appeared to be reacting by disrupting exports through the CPC terminal in Kazakhstan to raise global prices. “It is very clear from this that the Putin administration thinks that if we raise prices, the Ukrainians will stop hitting the crude export facilities, and that’s what we’ve seen in the last two days,” he noted.

The energy expert dismissed the notion that cutting Russian oil revenues could end the war. “The idea in general that if revenues decline, that will end the war is wrong. We are not talking about a democratic country where people vote leaders out in Russia. Russia went through many wars in the past, even the collapse in oil prices in the mid-80s. and after the Soviet Union. We’ve seen several declines in revenues as a result of market collapses – nothing happened. So, the idea itself is wrong,” he said.