India’s Chief of Defence: Russia’s Power Will Go Down

There is a transition from the old world order to a new one.

Russia will lose its geopolitical importance in the world in the coming years, said the Chief of the General Staff of the Indian Armed Forces, General Anil Chauhan.

According to him, the decline of Russian influence will take place despite the fact that Moscow has the world's largest nuclear arsenal and declares allied relations with China, whose role will grow.

“The world is now in transition from the old world order to a new one,” Gen Chauhan said while speaking at an Indian Air Force event in Bangalore. But Russia’s role will decrease in the new balance of power on the planet, the general assured.

“Russia’s geopolitical importance will go down in the times to come in spite of being a major nuclear power. The Wagner rebellion indicates the internal weakness and is indicative of what may lie in store for the future as far as Russia is concerned,” The Print quoted Gen Chauhan’s words.

China, unlike the Russian Federation, will build up its geopolitical muscles: it already “occupies an important place” in the world order and will become even more “aggressive” in the future, according to the general.

The interests of Russia and China, according to Chauhan, will coincide, and a number of other countries may join them. Primarily rogue states such as Iran and North Korea are among them.

“In this regard, the Indian Armed Forces need transformations to meet the conditions of the changing world and new warfare,” India’s Chief of Defence said.

India has long been the largest buyer of Russian weapons since Soviet times, but has sharply reduced purchases in recent years due to sanctions and contract failures.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russian weapon supplies to India have fallen by 37% over the past five years, a period during which Rosoboronexport has been under US restrictions.

The war in Ukraine and a new wave of sanctions restrictions, which included almost all large state-owned banks, complicated the situation even more. For a year now, India has been unable to find a way to transfer $2 billion for weapons to Russia, and Russia, in turn, has suspended the issuance of funds under a $10 billion credit line intended for the purchase of spare parts.

As a result, the contract concluded in 2018 for the sale of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems (ZRS) to India is broken. India received only two out of five systems.