Recent reports have confirmed that Russia and India are finalizing the finer details of a deal that is worth more than $5 billion. The deal involves the delivery of the Russian S-400 missile systems to New Delhi, the capital of India.
According to people with insider information about the deal, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself will be overseeing the deal during his state visit to India this week. This was confirmed by a top aide to the Kremlin Yuri Ushakov.
Mr. Ushakov said that President Putin will be leaving for India on Oct. 4. He added that the most important feature of this upcoming state visit is the signing of an agreement for the turnover of the Russian S-400 air defense missile system which India will purchase from Russia. The whole deal is valued at more than $5 billion, according to people with insider information about the deal.
Russia and India have been in negotiations of the terms of the missile deal for quite some time already. The Russian S-400 air defense system is a surface-to-air missile system that is considered as one of the most effective defense systems to be deployed to date.
The Russian S-400 missile defense system is a state of the art weapons platform. It is reported that it has a maximum range of 400 kilometers, which is why many military experts consider it as one of the best defense systems in the world.
The tension between Russia and the United States have been very high recently. With India's purchase of these Russian defense missile system, the United States is expected to slap the Asian country with various sanctions. The United States has been busy for quite some time convincing other countries to stray away from buying Russian military hardware or face the consequences of sanctions.
In a report by Al Jazeera, a senior official from the Pentagon have said in August that India will face necessary sanctions should the country push through with its commitment to acquire the said Russian military hardware. Many observers said that these sanctions will be imposed once India finalized the deal with its Russian counterparts.
As for India, the country has shown signals that it is planning to ask the United States for a special waiver in order not to bear the brunt of the sanction. However, a top U.S. official said last week that there is no guarantee that the world's superpower will adhere to India's request.
