The majority of new oil imports to India are actually going by tanker from the Baltic ports. This is all of the oil from West of the Ural Mountains. That is the oil that lost its European markets and had to find a new buyer.

India has no interest in “removing” the US as a dominant power. India is part of “The Quad” and their geopolitical goals seem to be fairly aligned with US interests in south east Asia/south China sea.

This isn’t just India’s stance. It’s a loophole that was more than likely intentional.

One of the key points of this strategy is that we can’t afford for ~10 million barrels of Russian oil to leave the market without serious consequences. On top of that much of Russia’s oil would likely be shut down for years if they have to turn off production. This would result in substantial rises in energy costs, huge energy shortages in many developing countries, massive supply chain disruptions and, possibly most importantly, would likely drive a huge wedge into the coalition that is supporting Ukraine.

I don’t know if this is the best option available, but there are so many consequences to just shutting them out that I don’t think that’s the best option either.

One of the key points of this strategy is that we can’t afford for ~10 million barrels of Russian oil to leave the market without serious consequences. On top of that much of Russia’s oil would likely be shut down for years if they have to turn off production. This would result in substantial rises in energy costs, huge energy shortages in many developing countries, massive supply chain disruptions and, possibly most importantly, would likely drive a huge wedge into the coalition that is supporting Ukraine.

I don’t know if this is the best option available, but there are so many consequences to just shutting them out that I don’t think that’s the best option either.

I’ve heard some interesting perspectives on the whole India buying Russian oil thing. It seems to have been a strategic option to allow Russian oil to continue to get into the international supply chains (so as to not drastically impact overall supply/pricing) while also drastically reducing the amount of money that Russia makes off of it.

At this point Russia is essentially losing money on every barrel of oil it sells to India.

It’s very true. For scale, more people sold in to slavery died crossing the Atlantic than were involved in the Barbary coast slave trade.

It’s also important to not disregard that trade either. It had a very different impetus and would play a substantial role on Mediterranean trade and politics, ultimately resulting in the French colonization of Algeria. This had a huge impact on all of North Africa and the shaping of the Mediterranean.

It’s less than 4%. Between 380 and 450,000 slaves were transported to the US. Over 12 million were transported from Africa with ~10.5 million surviving the journey.

Side note, more slaves died during the voyage across the Atlantic in the 300 years that route was active than were taken in the Barbary trade.

There’s also a lot of false narratives surrounding the Atlantic slave trade. Such as the vast majority of slaves being sold to Europeans by African rulers, not “kidnapped” by Europeans. The slave trade to what is now the United States made of a tiny proportion of slaves moved across the Atlantic. Approximately 12.5 millions Africans were transported across the Atlantic between 1525 - 1866, with approximately 10.7 surviving the voyage.

Of those 10.7 million about 388,000 ended up in the North America. The rest ended up in The Caribbean and South America. Over 4 million to Brazil alone. The United States was the only country where the slave population grew. In every other country the population dropped continually due to extreme disregard for their wellbeing and the work they were forced to do (mining, plantation work in areas with high rates of malaria, yellow fever, etc.).

This is in no way a defense of the slave trade or the suffering that was imposed on every individual that was forced to leave everything they’d ever known and robbed of everything. That includes those taken to North America. We need to understand the numbers and full tragedy of what took place, with most of it taking place outside of North America.