Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will be in India on Wednesday for the 15th annual India-Russia Summit. These bilateral summits have been taking place since 2000 alternately in Moscow and New Delhi. Since independence Russia, more than any other country, has stood by India through all manner of geopolitical upheavals.

This might be a good time to look at some interesting facets of the India-Russia relationship as it has changed over the ages.

The Great Game:

“It is Lord Beaconsfield’s present opinion that in such case Russia must be attacked from Asia, that the troops should be sent to the Persian Gulf, and that the Empress of India should order her armies to clear Central Asia of Muscovites and drive them into the Caspian." Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) wrote this in a letter to Queen Victoria in 1878. At the height of the Great Game, as the British Empire and the Russian Empire tried to wrest control of Central Asia, Disraeli was echoing British concerns about the Russians advancing towards India. Today, it seems unthinkable that at one point there was fear that Russia would want to annexe the crowning glory of the British Empire: India. The fear was real enough that “to augment the prestige of Britain in Asia, Queen Victoria officially took the title of the empress of India at the strong recommendation of Disraeli on April 26, 1876." (page 173 The Great Game 1856-1907: Russo-British Relations in Central and East Asia by Evgeny Sergeev, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). The Great Game ended in 1907, but British doubts about Russia did not.

The visit of Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin

The first official visit of Soviet leaders to independent India took place in November 1955. Premier of the Soviet Union Bulganin and then secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Khrushchev were welcomed in the country with much fanfare. Both Soviet leaders travelled quite a bit within India.

On a visit to Ooty, Bulganin and Khrushchev indulged in some rather unorthodox pursuits. They sought the services of a barber called N. Varadhan. A 2003 report in The Hindu tells the fascinating tale of the most famous barber of Ooty and his dealings with the Soviet leaders: “Varadhan was one of the best known citizens of this hill station, not only among the affluent, middle class and poor sections of the society here but also the rich and famous in different parts of the country and abroad; he was brought in a car to the Raj Bhavan here to attend to the tonsorial needs of the then Soviet prime minister, Nikolai Bulganin, and the then chief of the Communist party of Russia, Nikita Khrushchev. For meeting their requirements satisfactorily and seven others of the Russian party, Varadhan was given a hundred rupees."

Boris Yeltsin on Kashmir

Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, visited India in January 1993. He unequivocally supported India on Kashmir and said that “the truth was on the Indian side". The statement issued by the official spokesman of the ministry of external affairs after Yeltsin met prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao are instructive: “President Yeltsin supported India’s position and expressed Russia’s support for India’s unity and territorial integrity. The two leaders also discussed the danger posed by fundamentalism which had led to violence and terrorism in different parts of the world. Our Prime Minister underlined the threat posed by cross-border state sponsored terrorism. President Yeltsin stressed his country’s opposition to terrorism and secessionism".

Global Roaming runs every Tuesday to take stock of international events and trends from a political and economic perspective.

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