Russia has stopped supplying its weapons to India due to the fact that the parties cannot yet find a way to pay for the supplies that does not violate US sanctions. This is reported by Bloomberg, citing sources in the Indian government.
For a year now, India has been unable to make payments of $2 billion for Russian weapons. The supply of spare parts for weapons systems has ceased. Two S-400 SAM batteries were not delivered. In total, India planned to purchase arms worth $10 billion from Russia in the near future.
India cannot pay the bill in US dollars, because in this case, it will face secondary sanctions. Russia, on the other hand, does not want to accept rupees because of the volatility of the exchange rate of this currency. In turn, India cannot buy the required amount of rubles on the open market at a "fair price".
Bloomberg sources say that the Indian authorities offered Moscow to invest the rupees that Russia could get from arms sales in Indian national debt and capital markets. However, the Russian authorities "did not find this scheme attractive."
One solution to the problem could be to pay in euros and dirhams, the currencies in which India pays for Russian oil. However, in this case, the US may pay closer attention to its supplies. India is also considering barter, but Russia is already the largest buyer of Indian goods after China and Turkey.
It was previously revealed that the State Bank of India and the Indian Bank of Baroda had notified Indian oil refiners that they would not be able to make payments for Russian oil, the price of which exceeds the $60 ceiling established under the sanctions.