The expert assessed the chances of China to abandon the purchase of Russian oil

Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to RIA Novosti on whether countries that retain Russian oil imports could abandon it in the event of increased pressure on them from the United States.

Earlier on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed a decree imposing an additional 25% duty on imports from India for its purchases of oil from Russia. The duty will be applied to goods that arrive 21 days after the signing of the decree. In addition, the United States may impose an additional 25% duty on goods from other countries importing Russian oil.

What India will do in the end is still unknown - now all eyes will be on it, Belogoryev noted. If the country succumbs to US pressure and sharply reduces or stops imports, Russia will most likely be able to redirect about 40-50% of supplies, that is, about 800-900 thousand barrels of oil per day, to other countries. According to the expert, the released volumes are likely to go to those countries where other suppliers will reduce exports by switching to the Indian market.

"China is likely to keep imports at about the current level, as it has already made its geopolitical choice: confrontation with the United States. And an additional 25% tariff increase is just another problem in the negotiations that will be discussed, nothing more. This is definitely not some fateful decision for China," Belogoryev explained.

"This is due to the fact that Turkey's support in a number of areas is fundamentally important to him now, and he is unlikely to want to quarrel with Erdogan, it seems to me. At least, there were no attempts in this direction," he explained.

According to the expert, for the same reasons, the United States is unlikely to touch Hungary and Slovakia, where Russia continues to supply via the Druzhba pipeline, which are among the few Trump supporters in Europe.