Russia in talks with India to continue defence co-operation despite western sanctions, says Moscow’s deputy envoy to New Delhi

Roman Babushkin says India’s independent position on Ukraine shows it is a responsible global power, cannot be manipulated by the US

Roman Babushkin, Moscow’s deputy envoy to New Delhi, tells Anirban Bhaumik of DH that Russia is not in a war with the people of Ukraine, but launched a special military operation only to ‘denazify’ and ‘demilitarise’ the nation. He said that Moscow only wants to ensure that the territory of Ukraine is not used against Russia. The sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and other western nations will hit the global economy, he said.

Russia, however, remains committed to implementing all its agreements with India for supplying military hardware, including S-400 missile defence systems. The Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Russian Federation in New Delhi added that Moscow will share with the Government of India the findings of the probe into the death of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, a resident of Karnataka in southern India, who was killed at Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine on March 1.

Why did Russia have to launch military operations in Ukraine? Couldn’t Russia and NATO have resolved the differences through dialogue?

Dialogue has always been and remains a priority choice of Russia. During three recent decades, we were engaged in various levels of conversation on European security.

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After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was assured numerous times that NATO would not expand and would not admit new members. But the US-led bloc not only cared little to adhere to its commitments but also was taking measures to dismantle dialogue architecture with Russia and continued to expand. In order to justify itself – since obviously after the cold war there was a problem of the NATO identity and purpose – they increasingly started conducting unfriendly activities, including anti-Russian military exercises and deploying more weapons in the region, which were against the security interests of Russia. After the western countries supported an unconstitutional coup in Ukraine in 2014, the NATO leaders started openly using Ukraine and its extreme nationalist neo-Nazi policies against Russia and everything related to Russia, even suppression of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine and genocide against people, who didn’t recognise illegitimate Western-sponsored regime. Since 2014, around 14,000 people in Donetsk and Lugansk regions have been killed during ceasefire violations and targeted shelling. Kyiv authorities from the very beginning were not going to implement the Minsk Agreements and conduct a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk.

In recent years, NATO has intensified supplying military equipment and weapons to Ukraine exceeding thousands of tons. That was the condition when the Russian red lines were about to be crossed, and in December 2021 we went with proposals for NATO to ensure legally-binding security guarantees for Russia, including non-expansion of the bloc and disarmament control. But they ignored our proposal. In fact, since the western nations were silent over what was happening in the eastern part of Ukraine, Russia in order to stop the war there had to launch a special military operation. It is aimed at denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine. Russia is not waging war against Ukraine and its people. We are only fighting the ultranationalists and their neo-Nazi ideology to protect the people of Ukraine and not to allow its territory to be used against Russia.

For these purposes, the Russian Armed Forces are only using high-precision weapons to target the military infrastructure in Ukraine. They don’t target civilians or civilian infrastructure. They are not using prohibited weapons. They are not capturing and taking civilians as hostages, unlike what is being rampantly done by the forces fighting for the nationalist regime of Ukraine.

How do you view India’s stand and its abstentions from voting on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council?

We welcome India’s balanced and independent approach on the issue of Ukraine. It shows that India is a responsible global power. India has a very deep understanding of the crisis in Ukraine. It is also in India’s national interest not to allow anyone to manipulate it or dictate what stand it should take on such issues in international platforms.

Will Russia share the findings of the probe into the death of 21-year-old medical student Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, apparently due to shelling? Can Russia help bring back home his mortal remains?

It is a very unfortunate incident. We are not sure about the circumstances that caused this tragedy. The Russian Armed Forces do not target civilians. If it was shelling, videos that went viral clearly show that a missile came from the western side. Let’s also keep in mind that the Kyiv regime started disseminating weapons for free for everyone, including criminals, who were freed from prisons. Among them are racists and neo-Nazis, and one of the versions is that the Indian student died in cross-firing. We will be interested in conducting an investigation into the incident and we will be sharing our findings with the Government of India and will coordinate on the issue of repatriation of his mortal remains.

Has Russia been in touch with India for the evacuation of its citizens from Ukraine? What did Russia do or what had Russia offered to do to facilitate the evacuation of India’s citizens?

Currently, this is the priority issue in our dialogue on various levels, including between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Russian Government and the Russian Armed Forces are always ready and committed to do whatever they can to evacuate the citizens of India from Ukraine. All arrangements are there to receive the Indians at the Russian border. Already a couple of times we announced ceasefire to ensure safe evacuation, but the people are not let go by the Ukrainian nationalists, who even go beyond the control of Kyiv. Moreover, they often use civilians as human shields. That delays evacuation.

How do you view India’s decision to send humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and its resistance to the US bid to expand the Quad’s ambit to make it criticise Russia's military operations in Ukraine?

We view India’s humanitarian assistance to Ukraine positively, for sure. Russia is also providing a lot of humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine, particularly in the cities which have been liberated. We are providing food, medicines and other essentials.

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As far as the Quad is concerned, Prime Minister Modi made it clear that this mechanism should remain focused on its agenda, which has nothing to do with the situation in Europe. It’s a strong message that India is not going to allow anyone to manipulate and pressurise it. The United States has an old habit of trying to politicise multilateral institutions to advance its own agenda. Unlike the US, Russia does not believe in coercing or blackmailing any of its friends.

The US has sought to draw a parallel between Russia’s military operations in Ukraine and China’s mobilisation of troops along its Line of Actual Control with India. What is your view?

The US is in fact trying to pressurise India to make it change its position on the issue of Ukraine. But each situation should be seen differently. The crisis in Ukraine was preceded by a sequence of particular events, decisions and actions by the western countries that ultimately led to Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.

As far as the India-China boundary issue is concerned, it is completely different. As a sincere well-wisher of both India and China, Russia hopes that the two nations will be able to amicably resolve the border crisis through bilateral talks and mechanisms and without any external interference. We are not taking sides in this matter. What Russia really can do is to provide suitable platforms and opportunities to India and China to have more options for a constructive dialogue. For example, Foreign Ministers of India and China had a number of bilateral talks on the sidelines of the meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), including the ones held in Russia. This means that this platform is comfortable for both sides. There are other similar mechanisms, like the BRICS and the RIC, which provide good opportunities to expand common ground and create a positive atmosphere for negotiations. The US, on the other hand, is only trying to use this bilateral issue in its geopolitical purposes, provoking aggressive thinking and trying to use India in order to pursue its own agenda of containing China.

How will you deal with the challenges the western sanctions on Russia pose to Russia-India relations, including delivery of S-400 missile defence systems and other military hardware?

Neither India nor Russia recognises unilateral sanctions. The US and other western nations claim to be champions of human rights, but the unlawful unilateral sanctions they impose on nations in fact violate human rights and make common people suffer, as we have seen in Iran, North Korea and Syria. The sanctions are becoming extraordinary these days. The unlawful sanctions imposed by the US and other nations not only target economic and financial systems, but affect everything. They are, for example, targeting Russian airlines and Russian media these days. They are even trying to bar Russia’s representatives from participating in international sports and cultural events.

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Such sanctions will certainly hit the global economy – you can see that the energy prices are increasing day by day because of the western sanctions policy. You cannot isolate a big country such as Russia from the global economy and global policy. By deciding to withdraw from Russia, the western companies are losing a huge market. And, as far as the Russian economy is concerned, we have been living under sanctions for years now. For us, there’s not much new. There are many alternative options, including the expansion of mutually beneficial co-operation with the Asian nations, including India.

With India, we are trying to figure out ways to continue our co-operation and adapt the mechanisms of payments, some of them are already in place, including the use of national currencies, which is going to be expanded. It will also be very important to ensure smooth continuation of our decades-long defence co-operation as one of the pillars of the Russian-Indian special and privileged strategic partnership. We remain committed to implement all our agreements, including the one for supplying S-400 missile air-defence systems to India. We enjoy an exceptional level of goodwill, mutual understanding and trust, and nothing will disrupt friendly ties between India and Russia.