- Peter Navarro accused India of buying Russian oil solely to profiteer and fund the war
- Elon Musk's X platform labelled Navarro's claims as hypocritical through community notes
- India rejected Navarro's allegations, citing national interest and market dynamics
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro's daily rant against India has now drawn in Elon Musk. In his latest remark, Navarro claimed that 'India buys Russia oil solely to profiteer" and critised Musk and the X community note feature that called it 'hypocritical'.
Navarro was responding to a community note on his earlier post in which he had alleged that India's purchase of Russian oil 'feeds' the Russian 'war machine'. Over the past few weeks, Navarro has made a series of attacks on New Delhi for its energy ties with Moscow.
"Wow. @elonmusk is letting propaganda into people's posts. That crap note below is just that. Crap. India buys Russia oil solely to profiteer. It didn't buy any before Russia invaded Ukraine. Indian govt spin machine moving high tilt. Stop killing Ukrainians. Stop taking American jobs," Navarro said in a post on X on Saturday.
Wow. @elonmusk is letting propaganda into people's posts. That crap note below is just that. Crap. India buys Russia oil solely to profiteer. It didn't buy any before Russia invaded Ukraine. Indian govt spin machine moving high tilt. Stop killing Ukranians. Stop taking… https://t.co/Uj1NMUrVOM
September 6, 2025"India highest tariffs costs US jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit/Revenues feed Russia war machine. Ukrainians and Russians die. US taxpayers shell out more. India can't handle truth and spins," the Trump aide earlier posted.
The community note described Navarro's claims as 'hypocritical'. According to X, community notes aim to create a 'better-informed world' by empowering people on the social media platform to 'collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts'.
AdvertisementIndia has rejected as 'inaccurate and misleading' Navarro's attack on it for the procurement of Russian crude oil, and maintained that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.
Last week, Navarro accused India of being an "oil money laundromat for the Kremlin" and described it as "strategic freeloading" that New Delhi continues to buy Russian weapons while urging American defence firms to transfer sensitive military technologies and set up manufacturing plants in India.
AdvertisementThe relations between New Delhi and Washington are on a downturn after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50% including a 25% additional duty for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.
India described the US action as 'unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" and even wondered why it had been singled out for the punitive action. Surprisingly, the US has not imposed any punitive measures on China, the largest importer of Russian crude oil.
Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.
India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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