The rush by Brazil, India, and China to buy energy from Russia shows President Vladimir Putin still has strong allies who can prop up his economy despite Western resistance.
On Tuesday, Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Franca said his country wanted to buy as much diesel as possible from Russia to help prop up its agriculture industry and drivers, Reuters reported.
In recent weeks, Russia became India’s second-largest source of oil even though historically, the two countries hardly relied on each other for energy, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia to become China’s biggest supplier of oil.
Russia supplied 2.02 million barrels per day to China in May up from 1.31 million in the month before, according to Chinese customs data.