PUTIN'S MANDATE IS FOR SETTLING THE UKRAINE WAR

Narendra Modi has played an astute game in engaging all protagonists involved in Russia's war in Ukraine. The West's fracturing support for Ukraine is playing to Putin's advantage

- MK BHADRAKUMAR

THERE are times when one wonders whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a below-the-radar 'Russianist' or an unabashed Russophile. Of course, it is possible to be both. Modi's congratulatory mes sage on Monday to Russian President Vladimir Putin on his magnificent election victory made headlines against the backdrop of the nasty characterisation of the poll as a sham and a fraud by the Western and Indian press.

Feelings are running high in Western capitals with the growing realisation that it is too late to influence the outcome of the Ukraine war. A covert attempt to destabilise Russia appeared in the runup to the presidential election on March 15-17. A 1,500-strong strike force from across the border with Ukraine comprising Russian speakers in a special unit and a large number of foreign fighters supported by tanks and armoured personnel carriers (including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles) and shock troops from elite Ukrainian units made a desperate attempt to capture some Russian territory in the Belgorod region.

The operation ended in a fiasco and the polling went ahead as scheduled. The entire operation was aimed at weakening support for Putin and disrupting the election in Russia.

Now Plan B is unfolding to discredit the election result. But the turnout of 74 percent speaks for itself. In reality, this has been a vote on Putin and not about democracy. The Russian electorate handed down a resounding mandate of support and approval of Putin's handling of the war and, equally, in steering the economy to an impressive growth trajectory as well as an ambitious blueprint of modernisation and innovation. There is a manifest surge of Russian nationalism, which Putin epitomises. Western capitals are loathe to accept it.