New Delhi, Oct. 25 -- When the United States finally moved against Russian energy giants Rosneft and Lukoil, the sanctions did more than tighten the screws on Moscow. They also, inadvertently, handed India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi a moment of strategic convenience. For months, New Delhi had been under quiet pressure from Washington to cut back its dependence on discounted Russian oil - a dependence that had ballooned since the invasion of Ukraine and made Moscow India's largest single crude supplier.

Now, with American sanctions rendering Russian barrels more difficult to pay for, insure, or transport, Modi can frame the inevitable retreat not as capitulation, but as policy - a forward-looking diversification plan, a sovereign reca...