India has sharply increased its prohibited exports to Russia

India has doubled its supplies to Russia of critical technologies banned by Western sanctions. Indian exports have become the second largest for Moscow after Chinese. Bloomberg reported this on Friday, October 11.

Against this backdrop, US and European officials noted the difficulty of trying to crack down on sanctioned exports fueled by the Russian military machine.

Exports of Indian goods such as microchips, circuits and machine tools topped $60 million in April and May, nearly doubling from earlier months this year.

However, it is estimated that in July it jumped to $95 million, officials told Bloomberg on condition of anonymity.

In terms of volume of supplies of sanctioned goods to the Russian Federation, only China tops India.

Western officials say the latest data suggests that nearly a fifth of illicit technologies reach the Russian military-industrial complex through India.

The publication wrote that India’s role in supplying such goods poses an additional challenge as the US and EU want to build partnerships with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which still maintains ties with Putin.

In addition, India has become a major buyer of Russian oil, despite efforts by Western allies to limit sales.

“A key factor in the change, officials say, is the large stockpile of rupees that Russia has accumulated from oil sales,” Bloomberg said.

Currently, due to India’s role as a transshipment point, the country is the focus of EU and US sanctions agencies, whose representatives have visited India several times, trying to force the government to stop supplies, and several Indian companies have come under Western sanctions.

It was earlier reported that India was the leading importer of Russian oil in July even surpassing China in this indicator.