It was under Putin's leadership that Indo-Russian ties grew manifold. From space exploration to joint development of missiles and arms sale to atomic energy -- areas of cooperation between the two nations are immense.
Russia continues to be India's largest supplier for defence material. Though the volume of Russian defence imports may have fallen marginally from the 80 per cent and more from Soviet times, it still hovers around the 70 per cent mark even after India's defence ministry expanded its suppliers to include Israel, France, Great Britain and the United States after the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s.
The India-Russian defence relationship has also changed from the traditional buyer-supplier relationship to a buyer-supplier and co-producer of equipment equation. India now manufactures several Russian defence products locally, including the Brahmos supersonic missile, the T-90 tank and Sukhoi fighter aircraft.
Putin is a fervent Russian nationalist and has an acute understanding of geopolitics and the present day globalised world of balance of power. Moscow no longer believes that Indo-Russian joint diplomacy has to be at the expense of either China or the US.
Image: Putin (second from right) with officials and politicians at the Presidential residence Rus, in Zavidovo, some 150 km from Moscow, last year.
Photograph: Vladimir Rodionov/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: PM's Moscow visit: Low-key but solid
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