'Russia and India's 96% bilateral trade now through Rupee-Rouble payment infra'

Moscow: Russia and India, the second-largest importer of Russian oil, have built a functioning payments infrastructure using roubles and rupees, which account for 96% of bilateral trade, a senior Russian banker said on Wednesday.

Russia's trade with India reached a record $70 billion in 2024, tripling since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, as India stepped up imports of Russian oil discounted due to Western sanctions. Bilateral trade fell in 2025 when those sanctions were tightened but rebounded in the first half of 2026.

"There are no problems with settlements between Russia and India. I am ready to say that this is one of the most reliable and best-established mechanisms for Russia's payments with other countries," said Ivan Nosov, head of Sberbank in India. He said that 90% of all transactions between the two countries are processed within 10 minutes, while more than 50% are processed in less than one minute.