White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a Tuesday press briefing that President Donald Trump is putting "tremendous public pressure" on Russia to end its war against Ukraine. Her example was "sanctions on India."
"Look, the president has put tremendous public pressure to bring this war to a close. He's taken actions as you've seen — sanctions on India and other actions as well," Leavitt said in a video posted by journalist Aaron Rupar. "He has made himself very clear that he wants to see this war end. And he has scoffed at the ideas of others that have been raised that we should wait another month before any meeting takes place. The president wants to move, and he wants to bring this war to an end as quickly as possible."
Trump alleged that India is indirectly financing Russia by making massive profits from its oil trade.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday that India is "just profiteering. They're reselling. This is what I would call the Indian arbitrage — buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it as product."
Matt Smith, oil market analyst at Kpler, told CNBC, "India buys Russian oil at a discount due to sanctions, refines it into gasoline and diesel, and then sells the product back to regions that have sanctioned Moscow such as Europe."
Before the invasion, India imported a minor amount of Russian crude oil. Now, however, CNBC said that imports of Russian oil have "surged." Currently, India is Russia's largest customer of oil, followed by China as the second-largest.
Trump issued an additional 25% tariff on India that will begin at the end of the month, the Times of India noted Monday. Meanwhile, any crude oil being sold from Russia to India is on hold.
Ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump told the press that he wasn't sure about whether he'd impose secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian oil, in addition to the Indian producers.
"If I have to do it, I'll do it. Maybe I won't have to do it," said Trump.
Trump offered to relax sanctions in February if Putin agreed to a ceasefire, Bloomberg reported at the time. It wasn't a successful pitch, however. While the administration has threatened additional sanctions against Russia, it hasn't instituted any; instead, it has targeted India.
See the clip below or at the link here.