Delhi visit Stakes high in meeting that benefits Kremlin

The world order looked materially different when Vladimir Putin last set foot in India, almost exactly four years ago.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen Pjotr Sauer

That visit - lasting just five hours due to the Covid pandemic - saw the Russian president and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, discuss economic and military cooperation and reaffirm their special relationship.

Three months later, Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine would turn him into a global pariah, isolating Russia and restricting Putin’s international travel.

The previous visit was also several years before Donald Trump was reelected for a second term as US president and upended years of closely nurtured US-India relations with inflammatory rhetoric and some of the world’s most punishing import tariffs, throwing Delhi into a tailspin.

Against this turbulent geopolitical backdrop, analysts emphasised the significance of Putin travelling to India yesterday to meet Modi, both as a symbol of the enduring relationship between the countries and as a message that neither would be cowed by pressure from the White House.