The Unlikeliest Constant

Why India’s bond with Russia survives sanctions, summits and shifting global power.

In an era defined by broken alliances and transactional diplomacy, the India-Russia relationship has proved oddly resilient. While the West seeks to isolate Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and China tests the limits of American power in Asia, India and Russia continue to conduct business with an ease that defies geopolitical fashion. Their partnership, rooted in Cold War history but adapted to a fiercely multipolar present, has become one of the quiet constants of global politics.

India’s ties with Moscow stretch back to the aftermath of the second world war, deepening during the Soviet era and reaching their emotional peak under Indira Gandhi in 1971. Those were years when ideology and necessity aligned. The Soviet Union is long gone, and today’s India is scarcely the Congress-led, state-heavy economy of old. Yet the relationship did not fade with the red flag. It was rebooted in 2000 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Putin forged what they called a “special and privileged strategic partnership.” Narendra Modi has since made it more pragmatic, more commercial and no less durable.

Common Interests

The glue holding the relationship together is not nostalgia but interest. Russia offers what India needs at scale: defence hardware, energy, fertilisers and strategic depth. India, for its part, offers Russia a massive market, diplomatic breathing room and the legitimacy of engagement at a time when Europe and America keep their distance.

The war in Ukraine has only sharpened that logic. As western buyers recoiled from Russian crude, India stepped in with enthusiasm, becoming one of Moscow’s largest oil customers. Discounts eased India’s inflationary pressures while keeping Russia’s export revenues flowing. Washington protested. Delhi ignored it. Strategic autonomy, long a slogan of Indian diplomacy, suddenly acquired a very visible balance-sheet.

Behind the oil tankers lies a deeper strategic symmetry. Russia has pivoted from west to east, not out of philosophical conviction but because isolation has given it little choice. It now sees Asia, above all China and India, as its economic rear-guard. India, meanwhile, sees Russia as both hedge and partner: a hedge against American overreach, and a partner in weapons systems that Western suppliers are often reluctant to share on easy terms.

Defence Ties

Defence remains the hard core of the relationship. From fighter aircraft to missile systems and submarines, Russian technology still underpins large sections of India’s military machine. Even as India diversifies suppliers to include France, Israel and America, Russia remains the single most embedded defence partner. This explains why sanctions have dented, but not broken, military cooperation.

Economics, too, is being retooled. Bilateral trade has surged since 2022, heavily tilted in Russia’s favour because of energy imports. Both sides speak of pushing it towards $100 billion in the coming years. That will require India to sell far more than pharmaceuticals, tea and engineering goods. It will require Indian firms to understand Russian consumers, logistics snarls and payment systems insulated from the dollar.

There is also a demographic logic emerging. Russia, ageing and labour-starved, needs skilled workers. India, youthful and credential-rich, is keen to export labour. Agreements to place tens of thousands of Indian workers in Russian industry point to a new phase of engagement.

Modi has also sought to clothe realpolitik in culture. Visa relaxations, tourism drives and talk of reviving old cinematic and artistic exchanges evoke the 1970s, when Raj Kapoor was as beloved in Moscow as in Mumbai.

Yet this relationship is not without its cracks. Russia’s growing closeness to China unsettles Indian strategists who remain locked in an unresolved standoff along their Himalayan frontier. Moscow insists it can manage both friendships even as New Delhi quietly doubts it. Meanwhile, India’s parallel courtship of the West through the Quad, defence deals with America and trade talks with Europe, creates an inevitable tension with its Russian alignment. India insists it can walk multiple paths at once. So far, it has managed to do so with surprising agility.

The India–Russia partnership is neither sentimental nor revolutionary. It is conservative in the oldest sense: it preserves arrangements that continue to deliver power, profit and protection. In a world tilting towards blocs and binaries, India is betting that strategic ambiguity is still viable.

(The writer is a researcher and expert in foreign affairs. Views personal.)