India, China and Turkey have ordered it. Technically, it is superior to weapons from the US, advertised by Putin’s aggressive foreign policy.
During his visit to New Delhi at the beginning of October, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not spare with flattering adjectives for his „dear friend,“ India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his country. There is „sincere friendship“ between Russia and India, the Rosneft and Gazprom supply contracts are just one aspect of „reliable cooperation“.
To be sure, Putin had another reason to rejoice, which he politely cited in his closing statement as „military cooperation“: a $ 5 billion deal on the purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems amid tensions between India to protect strategic goals such as cities or oil fields with China and Pakistan.
For Russia’s patriotic media, this was further proof that Russia is regaining its weight in the world, as even a country like India, which has been approaching Washington in recent years, has opted for supposedly superior Russian military high-tech. The Americans‘ warnings about possible sanctions for buying Russian weapons systems under the CAATS (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) that Washington imposed on Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 US election did not seem to deter India.
