This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batchelor.

I welcome Michael Bernstam of the Hoover Institution, my guide on sanctions regime against Russia in these moments between war and ceasefire.

We look at sanctions about the Russian oil being sold overseas, especially India and China.

Michael, a very good evening to you. You've spoken much of these last weeks about the intention of

Saudi Arabia, the United States, and other actors, to drive down the price of oil. It considerably

constrains the Kremlin's ability to make

war. But now there's a report that the oil is flowing again to customers in India and China. How so? Why?

Good evening to you. Living to your audience. What happens that we are living in the middle of a real,

real experiment.

We are part of it.

So what happens?

That in changing the tense, the outgoing Biden administration imposed sanctions on two major

Russian oil producers and 183 so-called shadow fleet tankers, that they could not run around to deliver oil

and oil products without Western insurance.

And immediately, under the threat of the secondary sanctions, the Chinese and the Indians

started to reduce import of Russian oil, substituted immediately

to the United States oil, India moved to Iraqi oil, China moved to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia

oil, the United States closed the gap, increased its exports there to over 300,000 barrels a day, which almost doubled from the past.

It was a long distance to China and India.

And Indian import of Russian oil fell from 1.9 or 2 million barrels a day to 1.4 million barrels a day.

Chinese import also fell from 1.7 million down, 12% in January in February 25.

So it looked like a big, big change in the world.

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