Putin and Modi continue to defy Trump's economic stick at SCO Summit

Narendra Modi hugged Vladimir Putin in Tianjin on Monday right there at the regional SCO Summit in front of ￰0￱ they got into the same car and headed to a private ￰1￱ this while Washington fumes over India’s Russian oil ￰2￱ ￰3￱ it’s funding the war in Ukraine. Modi’s response? A joint car ride with Putin, Kim Jong ￰4￱ later posted the two of them on X too, saying, “President Putin and I traveled together to the venue of our bilateral ￰5￱ with him are always insightful.” This meeting came days after President Donald Trump’s White House hiked tariffs on Indian goods to 50%, the highest rate slapped on any Asian ￰6￱ keeps buying oil while ￰7￱ more penalties Modi isn’t apologizing.

He’s not scaling back ￰8￱ fact, he’s been crystal clear that India will continue buying Russian oil as long as it remains ￰9￱ week, the chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India’s top explorer, said their refineries will buy “every drop of Russian crude” that makes financial ￰10￱ mixed ￰11￱ crude math. Meanwhile, oil prices nudged up on ￰12￱ rose 62 cents to hit $68.10 a barrel, and ￰13￱ Texas Intermediate climbed 65 cents to $64.66. Markets are jumpy after renewed Russian airstrikes on ￰14￱ a weakening dollar and a U. S.

holiday, and you’ve got a muted but uneasy ￰15￱ Brent and WTI fell more than 6% in August, ending a four-month streak of gains. OPEC+ increased supply, and now traders are staring down a possible ￰16￱ coming out of Russia’s ports dropped to 2.72 million barrels a day, the lowest in like a ￰17￱ warn this decline, paired with Trump’s tariff threats, could spook buyers or dent ￰18￱ not ￰19￱ analysts expect inventories to grow in the final quarter of 2025 and early ￰20￱ projection: a surplus of 1.6 million barrels per day by Q4. That’s not ideal for exporters, but New Delhi’s priority is price, not ￰21￱ flying to Tianjin, Modi had spoken to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy about peace, ￰22￱ said India was ready to “deliver the appropriate signal to Russia and other leaders.” The statement came before Modi’s face-to-face with Putin, making India look like it’s trying to wear two hats; one friendly to Russia, one open to ￰23￱ is still expected to visit India later this year, which means this diplomatic triangle isn’t going ￰24￱ delays new sanctions while Russia keeps bombing Back in D.

C., Trump keeps talking about “punishing” Putin, but he’s holding back. Russia’s battlefield strategy remains unchanged, and yet, the White House hasn’t dropped the next round of sanctions . There’s no full-blown economic squeeze, like on the ￰25￱ a private 4-hour meeting between the two “friends.” Chris Weafer, chief executive of Macro-Advisory, told CNBC: “The Russian budget is actually under a lot of pressure… so if there were to be any more significant sanctions targeting Russian oil trade from the U. S. — which they’ve talked about but not done — that would put the budget under greater ￰26￱ hasn’t happened.” Why is Trump hesitating?

Two reasons. First, he still wants to play peacemaker. He’s said it publicly: if he can bring Ukraine and Russia to the table, it would be a huge ￰27￱ the Nobel Peace Prize announcement expected in October, he’s got motivation. “Trump still thinks he can bring both sides to the table, that he could broker a peace deal, and that he can take credit for moving the conflict towards peace,” Weafer ￰28￱ second reason is ￰29￱ Trump crushes Russia economically, Putin has only one place to ￰30￱ isolation from the West would lock Moscow into China’s orbit.

That’s not a win for Washington either. “If Russia is completely isolated by the West… then it has no choice but to go even further all-in with China,” Weafer said. That’s the ￰31￱ or ￰32￱ $50 free to trade crypto when you sign up to Bybit now