 "From Crimea grab to Ukraine war: Nato's double standards on Russian oil sharpen as India stands firm")
In July, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte warned India, China and Brazil of potential “100% secondary sanctions” should they continue trading with Russia, particularly in oil and gas. Rutte — often seen as a close ally (almost a ‘puppet’) of US President Donald Trump — appeared not only out of touch with geopolitical realities but also displayed a degree of hypocrisy.
Nato’s present posture cannot be separated from its historical actions, a fact Rutte seemed willing to overlook.
Now, in his apparent quest to impress President Trump, the question remains: will Rutte mimic Trump by imposing similar sanctions on India for purchasing Russian crude?
This moral high ground was notably absent in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. At that time, India’s import of Russian crude was minimal — just 0.2 per cent of its total oil purchases — while European nations heavily depended on Russian energy to power their homes and industries.
Why Europe didn’t stop buying Russian oil after Crimea
In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, the European Union responded with political and economic sanctions targeting individuals, banks and certain sectors of the Russian economy. However, energy exports were explicitly left out of the sanction’s regime. This was a deliberate decision because European countries were heavily reliant on Russian fossil fuels, especially natural gas and oil, and feared that disrupting energy imports would lead to domestic shortages and price shocks.
Consequently, energy trade between the EU and Russia continued largely uninterrupted. European dependence on Russian oil and gas even grew in some areas, with new pipelines like Nord Stream 2 under construction as late as 2021. It was only after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that the EU took meaningful action to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
In response to the 2022 war, the EU introduced sweeping sanctions on Russian oil, including a ban on seaborne crude imports, a price cap mechanism, and restrictions on refined petroleum products. This marked a significant turning point, forcing European countries to diversify their energy supplies by turning to the US, Norway, West Asian producers and increasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsSo, did Russia’s unilateral announcement on September 30, 2022, regarding the annexation of territories in and around four Ukrainian oblasts — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia — suddenly awaken the EU’s long-dormant moral compass? Or was Crimea simply considered expendable?
Where Europe’s fuel comes from
Europe’s fuel mix is sourced from a combination of imported crude oil, domestic refining, alternative fuels and an emerging share of electricity for transport. The continent has a dense network of refineries that process crude oil into usable products like petrol, diesel and jet fuel. However, most of the crude oil processed in Europe is imported from abroad.
Historically, Russia was the single largest external supplier of crude oil to the EU. Prior to 2022, Russia provided about 25–30 per cent of Europe’s oil imports. Other major suppliers include Norway, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Kazakhstan and Nigeria. Even after the 2014 Crimea crisis, Europe continued purchasing Russian oil in large volumes.
In addition to conventional fuels, Europe also blends biofuels into its petrol and diesel streams, largely driven by EU renewable energy mandates. Biodiesel — produced from rapeseed, waste oils and palm oil — and bioethanol — produced from crops such as wheat and sugar beet — now comprise between 7 per cent and 10 per cent of the transport fuel mix in many EU countries.
A small but growing proportion of vehicles, particularly in countries like Norway and the Netherlands, run on electricity. The electricity used in transport comes from diverse sources, including renewables (solar, wind, hydro), nuclear and fossil-fuel-based generation. However, EVs still make up a minority of the vehicle stock, meaning their impact on fuel consumption is still limited.
A hollow fossil fuel moral compass
Even the European Union’s stand on the use of fossil fuels is nothing but hollow. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), the European Union had approximately 285 million road vehicles in use as of 2023.
This includes around 249 million passenger cars, 30 million light commercial vehicles, six million trucks and nearly 700,000 buses. These figures reflect gradual annual increases in each category, along with a modest but growing share of electrified vehicles, especially among newly registered cars.
In contrast, India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, via its Vahan portal and associated transport data, estimates that India has around 265 to 270 million registered vehicles as of 2024–2025. Unlike Europe, however, India’s fleet is heavily skewed toward two-wheelers, which constitute roughly 75 per cent of the total. India’s fleet of four-wheeled passenger cars and commercial vehicles is still smaller than Europe’s.
In India, two-wheelers average around 6,000 kilometres per year with a fuel efficiency of roughly 45 kilometres per litre. Given the estimated 180 million two-wheelers, this segment alone consumes about 24 billion litres of petrol annually.
Passenger cars, which number around 40 million and average 12,000 kilometres annually at 15 kilometres per litre, consume approximately 32 billion litres. Light commercial vehicles or vans, estimated at 10 million units, account for another 15 billion litres.
India’s five million trucks, which are mostly diesel-powered and average about 60,000 kilometres a year with fuel efficiency around 4 kilometres per litre, consume an estimated 75 billion litres.
Buses, numbering around one million, add roughly 14.3 billion litres of diesel to the national total. Altogether, India’s annual fuel consumption across all road vehicles is approximately 160 to 165 billion litres.
In Europe, the consumption profile is shaped more by four-wheeled vehicles. Passenger cars, numbering around 249 million and averaging 12,000 kilometres per year at 17 kilometres per litre, consume approximately 176 billion litres annually.
Vans, at about 30 million units, travel around 18,000 kilometres a year at 12 kilometres per litre, consuming around 45 billion litres. Europe’s six million trucks, with high usage and relatively low fuel efficiency, consume an estimated 90 billion litres annually.
Buses, which number approximately 680,000, consume about 9.7 billion litres. Altogether, the total estimated annual fuel consumption in Europe is roughly 320 to 325 billion litres, nearly double that of India.
Europe uses nearly twice as much fuel as India
Despite India’s nearly comparable number of registered vehicles, Europe’s road transport system consumes about twice as much fuel annually. This disparity is driven by several key factors.
First, Europe’s vehicle mix consists primarily of four-wheeled vehicles such as passenger cars, vans and heavy-duty trucks, which consume more fuel per kilometre than India’s predominantly two-wheeler fleet.
Second, vehicles in Europe tend to be driven longer distances on average, especially in the commercial and freight sectors.
Third, Europe has a higher proportion of diesel-powered vehicles, including large trucks and vans that consume significant fuel over long-haul routes.
Combined, these elements result in Europe’s annual road transport fuel consumption reaching over 320 billion litres, compared to India’s approximately 160 billion litres.
Nato’s double standards on energy and ethics
Nato’s current posturing, exemplified by Rutte’s threats of secondary sanctions, reeks of selective morality and geopolitical opportunism. It is difficult to take seriously an alliance that remained silent when its own member states continued — and even expanded — energy trade with Russia after Crimea, only finding its “values” after 2022 when it suited their interests.
Singling out countries such as India, China and Brazil now, while having profited handsomely from the very fossil fuel ties they now condemn, exposes not principled leadership but hypocrisy. Until Nato holds itself and its members to the same standards it demands of others — past and present — its rhetoric will ring hollow, and its credibility as a global moral arbiter will remain deeply compromised.
The question is: will Trump’s tail — Nato under Rutte — wag its tail just as eagerly?
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