The United States spent months pressuring India over its purchases of Russian oil, using punitive tariffs and diplomatic pressure to discourage New Delhi from doing business with Moscow. 

Now Washington has struck its own deal to import Russian diesel, hoping to bring down fuel prices at home. 

The reversal exposes a contradiction at the heart of American foreign policy. 

Energy purchases that Washington condemned when India made them have become acceptable when American consumers and voters need cheaper fuel.

The shift has consequences well beyond the American pump. 

It raises questions about the credibility of Western sanctions, the strategic calculations behind the war in Ukraine and the freedom of developing countries to pursue their economic interests without facing punishment from powerful nations.

The immediate pressure comes from diesel prices in the United States, where fuel powers agricultural machinery, heats homes and keeps trucks moving. 

Prices have reportedly risen by 70 percent since the United States and Israel launched their war with Iran on February 28. The national average reached a record $6.52 a gallon in September before falling to $6.20, according to the American Automobile Association. 

For farmers and truckers, such increases feed directly into the cost of producing and transporting food and other goods. Consumers eventually pay the bill.

The political stakes are equally plain. 

A Pew Research Center poll found that the economy was the most important issue for 84 percent of registered voters. With midterm elections approaching, the Trump administration has strong reasons to seek relief at the fuel pump. Its decision to ease sanctions on Russian fuel imports appears less like a coherent foreign policy doctrine than a response to domestic........

© Kashmir Observer