Indian refiners are beginning to use the Chinese yuan to pay for oil imports from Russia, as Western sanctions against Moscow make it difficult to settle payments in dollars. India has become the largest buyer of Russian oil, and both state and private refiners are paying in yuan when banks refuse to handle dollar transactions. This shift to the yuan is part of Beijing's efforts to internationalize the currency and comes after China overtook Saudi Arabia as Russia's top crude supplier in Q1 2018.
