Russia has been secretly purchasing dual-use goods from India and exploring the possibility of building enterprises in the country to obtain components for its military needs. This was reported by the Financial Times and UNN , citing state correspondence from Russia.
Details
Journalists found out that Moscow's Ministry of Industry and Trade, which controls defense production to support Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, developed confidential plans in October 2022 to spend about 82 billion rupees on critical electronics through channels hidden from Western governments.
The plan, outlined in letters to a shadowy trade promotion body closely linked to Russian intelligence services, was to use the "significant reserves" of rupees accumulated by Russian banks from oil sales to India.
In particular, Russia viewed India as an alternative market for the supply of critical goods that "used to be supplied from unfriendly countries.
According to the documents, Russia and its Indian partners targeted dual-use technologies - goods that have both civilian and military applications and are subject to Western export controls. Moscow even suggested investing in Russian-Indian electronics development and manufacturing companies.
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Ossian companies also used rupees to trade gold and buy goods to circumvent sanctions.
Addendum
The documents list the Indian company Innovio Ventures as a supplier of electronic equipment worth $4.9 billion. In particular, we are talking about drones. The electronic equipment worth $568,000 was planned to be used by the Russian company Testkomplekt, which is closely linked to the defense sector.
It is unclear at this point how far Russia has succeeded in implementing this plan. But, according to Western journalists, citing recent trade flow data, relations with India have strengthened in certain categories of goods.
Recall
In July , India imported a record 2.07 million barrels of Russian oil per day, outpacing China. The share of Russian oil in India's imports reached 44%, an increase of 4.2% compared to June.
