Why is Modi sucking up to Putin? It’s simple and cynical: China and oil | Sergey Radchenko

Building bridges to Russia plays to India’s strategic interest, which is to insert itself between Beijing and Moscow

If bear-hugging a murderous autocrat is not your idea of a sensible foreign policy, then you aren’t thinking like the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi. His fraternising with Vladimir Putin this week has included a private welcome at the latter’s sprawling estate outside Moscow, a lavish dinner and even a happy ride-around in an e-cart.

During the frivolities, Russia launched another series of airstrikes on targets in Ukraine, destroying a children’s hospital in Kyiv. But Modi would not let that derail the summit. He is playing for higher stakes. Modi knows well how to opportunistically turn someone else’s war to his advantage. His objective, after all, is to raise India’s profile – and his own – in the hope of becoming an indispensable power, one equally courted by democrats and dictators.

Sergey Radchenko is Wilson E Schmidt distinguished professor at the Henry A Kissinger Center, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Baltimore

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