New Delhi: Indians have been “very good actors,” and they stopped buying sanctioned Russian oil when the United States told them to, said US treasury secretary Scott Bessent. Bessent made the statement while speaking on a television programme on Fox Business on Friday (March 6).“The Indians have been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil…they did, they were going to substitute it with US oil. But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil,” he said on the news show.There are “hundreds of millions” of barrels of sanctioned crude on the water and by unsanctioning them, the US treasury can create supply – and that is what they’re looking to do, Bessent said. “We are going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict,” he added.Bessent shared the clip on his social media account on X on March 7, and said that the world is now “well supplied in oil”, thanks to US President Donald Trump’s “policy of American Energy Dominance”.“Our allies in India have been good actors and have previously stopped buying sanctioned Russian oil. As we work to ease the temporary gap of oil supply around the world, we have temporarily permitted them to accept Russian oil that is already on the water,” he repeated, in his social media post.This “permission” is a “deliberately short-term measure” and will not offer “significant financial benefit to the Russian government because it only authorizes transactions involving oil already stranded at sea”, he claimed.The world is well supplied in oil thanks to @POTUS’ policy of American Energy Dominance.Our allies in India have been good actors and have previously stopped buying sanctioned Russian oil. As we work to ease the temporary gap of oil supply around the world, we have temporarily… pic.twitter.com/XqnthTxSLn— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) March 7, 2026Bessent’s comments show that India may have indeed stopped buying Russian oil on the US’s behest – something Indian authorities have still refused to comment on.As The Wire has reported, the US treasury department on Thursday (March 5) authorised the sale of Russian oil to India for 30 days, in what it called an effort to relieve price pressures caused by the ongoing conflict with Iran.The treasury department had said that crude oil and petroleum products from Russia that are already on ships can be unloaded in India from March 5 to April 4. Opposition parties in India have accused Modi of surrendering to US President Donald Trump, mortgaging the country to US interests, as The Wire reported.On February 14, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that India has committed to stop buying Russian oil – a claim that the US has made multiple times since the trade deal between the two countries was announced. India, however, has been mum on the issue.On February 10, foreign secretary Vikram Misri told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that the Union government had chosen not to react to the US executive order explicitly linking tariff concessions to India ending Russian oil purchases. Misri had not given a clear answer on whether India had formally committed to the US to stop importing Russian oil; on February 7, Union industries and commerce minister Piyush Goyal also evaded questions on the issue.However, at the same conference that Rubio made his statement on February 14, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had said India remained firmly committed to strategic autonomy “because it’s a part of our history and our evolution”.Bessent’s comments on March 6 also suggest that the US stands to benefit from India not buying Russian oil and substituting it instead with US crude.Incidentally, US crude oil on Friday (March 6) posted its biggest weekly gain in futures trading history, per CNBC. West Texas Intermediate (a grade of crude oil from the US) futures surged 12.21%, or $9.89, to close at $90.90 per barrel; Brent Crude – a global benchmark for pricing oil, particularly in Europe, Africa and the Middle East – rallied at 8.52%, or $7.28, to settle at $92.69 per barrel. Per the report, U.S. crude soared 35.63% for the biggest weekly gain in the history of the futures contract dating back to 1983. Brent jumped about 28% for its biggest weekly gain since April 2020.