Russia has been secretly acquiring sensitive goods in India and explored building facilities in the country to secure components for its war effort, according to Russian state correspondence seen by the Financial Times.
Moscow’s industry and trade ministry, which oversees defence production to support Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, drew up confidential plans in October 2022 to spend about Rs82bn ($1bn at the time) on securing critical electronics through channels hidden from western governments.
The plan, revealed in letters to a shadowy trade promotion body with strong links to the Russian security services, aimed to use “significant reserves” of rupees amassed by Russian banks from booming oil sales to India. It saw India as an alternative market to source crucial goods “previously supplied from unfriendly countries”.
Unsurprising. India is taking advantage of the situation for all its worth, and, from a purely realpolitik standpoint, it’s hard to blame them.
No… it’s pretty easy
From a moral standpoint, you may find it easy to blame them.
Look into some history of India, as a sovereign nation, and how they were treated by the West for most of the 20th century. The Soviet Union was a much needed friend to India when the rest of the West turned their back after the British were kicked out. I don’t blame India for some of the continued engagement with russia. However, Ukraine was also part of the nation (Soviet Union) that helped India, and I’m not seeing weigh positively for Ukraine. I say this as an American. The West (including the USA) has done some pretty messed up stuff to other nations in the 20th century.
There was no India before and for half the 20th century. Britain really united all those separate kingdoms into what India is. The majority of indias exports were not to Russia in the 20th century. Russia accounted for around 15% - 20% of their exports at that time.