In India, Putin may not have had any new insight on Mohandas Gandhi, but he brought back a fat stack of contracts for Russia.
Yesterday Delhi saw the signing of several unbelievable new contracts with Moscow. Unbelievable because of their sheer scale in the course of a one-day working visit by the Russian prime minister. Kommersant's special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov bears witness to the unveiling of a contract on the completion of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, 29 MiG-29K fighter jets, and 16 NPP units.
In the Delhi office of the Russian-owned financial corporation Sistema, Vladimir Putin led an Internet conference with business elite from around the subcontinent.
Forty minutes before the meeting, the host addressed the empty chair where Putin was to preside for the ninth time:
"Dear Prime Minister. Our entire country wants to speak with you. Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai..."
The staff in the Mumbai studio, busy with putting up the stage, only nodded morosely. A young woman in Kolkata asked repeatedly for Vladimir Putin's opinion on the introduction of new Indian information technologies in the Russian economy... A call-in show with Vladimir Putin was in full swing, and the only thing missing was Vladimir Putin himself.
The host couldn't get enough of himself. He wasn't just rehearsing – like any true TV host by vocation, he was enjoying every minute spent under the camera's watchful eye. I thought that any minute he would stop simply asking questions and start jumping from chair to chair, playing both himself and Vladimir Putin in rehearsals. But he kept in line through tremendous effort and attempted to distract himself from the burning desire to once again start talking with the empty chair. He would call his wife while powdering himself, his skin mat and visibly bronze.
On the other end of the line, TV hostesses seemed to have suspended the shooting of all other series to take part in the main show of the month and, possibly, the year. Varied in colours were girls, hair, sari. I thought Vladimir Putin would be conversing with them (there was a lot to talk about... despite his claim in 2007 that with Mohandas Gandhi's death, the world lost its most valuable interlocutor). But in fact, he didn't have the chance to talk with any of them. He could only nod. The numerous Indian business representatives asked the questions, and they were the ones that the prime minister answered.
"Today we have a special guest," said the host for the 16th time, finally in the presence of his special guest. "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin! He will answer the questions India has to ask!"
Several more minutes were spent on describing the uniqueness of the show's format (for India).
Ananya in Mumbai gave the floor to one of the studio guests, who recalled the 2007 visit of Vladimir Putin, back in the days of his presidency (apparently, he couldn't he pass up the chance to rub salt in the wound).
"And now you're the prime minister!" Another jab!... No question really followed.
Putin then explained how the basis for Indian industry had been created with the Soviet Union's generous help.
Now, he elaborated, Russia has moved on and is prepared to lead India into a brave new world. "We created... have created a system, analogous to GPS, GLONASS. The regions that already use that system exhibit cost savings of up to 20-25%" he said.
One could see Indian delegates exchange bewildered looks over the monitors in Bangalore and Kolkata, apparently not understanding the prime minister's reasoning. Putin had to explain bluntly:
"The driver won't stray off the road for a hip-pocket deal if his movements are recorded by GLONASS!"
The businessmen let out a collective sigh of relief, their faces clearing. Judging by their reaction, this argument will hardly convince India to introduce GLONASS to its citizens. The idea wasn't as transnational as the companies present, and Putin's example may be best suited the Central Russian Upland.
"Let's move to Bangalore (Khabarovsk, Yekatirenburg, Krasnodar –AK)," the host said. "I think Anita (Sergei, Vladimir, Pavel –AK) has some questions for the Prime Minister?..."
"What are your plans on mitigating visa requirements?" one of the businessmen asked. "We asked that before in 2007..."
That got to Putin.
He explained that changing visa regulation entails more complicated problems:
"Regarding the same matter with the EU, we had to sign an agreement on readmission, i.e. the return of illegal migrants... We have to solve this problem with India too. Just imagine that some Indians want to go to Europe through Russia and don't have the permission to do so. We will have to send them back. What are we to do with them?! Besides, they don't want to stay – they didn't come to live here! (The naked truth... –AK) I'm telling it like it is! Who is going to return them to India? Who is going to finance it? And what the health services?... And other vital things?... We want to cut this Gordian knot as soon as possible. This topic will be discussed at the meeting with Prime Minister Singh," Putin said.
Again, the monitor displayed the image of a girl who looked like she just walked off the set of an Indian movie, whisked away by her beloved from a cruel tyrant who owns two harbor cranes in Kolkata. Now she was playing the role of correspondent. Vladimir Putin smiled at her with gratitude. Girls like that can smooth over any tension. And vice versa.
"Onandu, you have a question if I'm not mistaken?" the host turned to her (Sergei, Kirill, Vladimir... –AK).
"Yes, Vitrum, thank you!"
Another Indian businessman asked about Russian partnership in the nuclear sphere and brought up Chenobyl, implying a challenge to Russian-Indian relations ib this field.
"Do you understand the necessity of competing with European and American players on that market?"
"Russia has had some bitter experience," the Prime Minister confirmed, "but that was in the Soviet era and in Ukraine."
Putin couldn't miss the parry and took it, momentarily sacrificing the memory of the Soviet Union and Ukraine to national interests of Russia.
"Concerning modern Russian reactors," he continued, "we build the new type reactors on Russian territory as well (What is supposed to be the standard of quality for said reactors? –AK). IAEA certified them as the safest reactors in the world. Specialists can confirm: they have physical protection, double containment, and they are able to withstand the direct hit of a medium-haul aircraft... and also intellectual protection..."
The prime minister trailed off...
However, he commented that the nuclear reactors are built for an approximate term of 50 years and that nuclear energy prices are not as unstable as hydrocarbon prices. I wonder what he would have said if the question had been about the advantages of oil and gas production in India?
Hard to say, but it's bound to have sounded just as convincing.
Here, Vitrum the TV host suddenly piped up with an unplanned reprise:
"We'll see, maybe in thirty years solar energy will topple all the others."
It sounded bitter, probably since the majority of those present in the studio (with the exception of the girls) couldn't be less interested.
Another discussion participant complained about customs restrictions on the import of Indian tea to Russia. Vladimir Putin was saddened by this notion. He said that even in tough times his family always drank tea, and on holidays they drank it imported from India.
He looked like he didn't want those times to return.
"You once said that Mohandas Gandhi had a great influence on you and your life," one of the businessmen in Kolkata reminded the prime minister.
He probably had in mind Putin's comment at a G8 summit in 2007 that with Ghandi deathe worthy conversationalists ran out. Although Putin later said that he was simply quoting a movie – nobody seemed to notice.
"I got this idea spontaneously," the prime minister admitted. "Why? It could have been something else! But I said it because Indian philosophy has always been respected in Russia! It's no secret that in Indian philosophy, one thing results from another and everything is interconnected. And if international relations were governed by this idea..."
Judging by the disappointed expression on the prime minister's face, there wasn't any hope for that.
Another businessman started criticizing Russian mass media for challenging the quality of Indian products. Putin didn't like that. He probably thinks it's fine to speak of Russian mass media in whatever tone one pleases, but Indians encroaching on the freedom of speech in Russia didn't please the prime minister.
"It's the media's goal to criticize the authorities," he said, at last pronouncing the long-awaited words. "And this is right! Those holding the power in the hands should always feel as if they're being studied under a magnifying glass!"
It took an Indian attack on freedom of speech in Russia for Vladimir Putin to stand up for it.
After the negotiations with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (during extended and limited attendance meetings) Russian delegates looked like cats that got the cream. They had things to hide, but it was written all over their faces.
Several contracts were signed in Putin and Singh's presence, and none of them had anything to do with the completion of the long-suffering Admiral Gorshkov or the supply of fighter jets for this aircraft carrier. And, understandably, those were the most interesting things. The analysis of a contract on the supply of mineral fertilizers to India took a great deal of effort, and there was a contract titled "On partnership in peaceful use of nuclear energy", but nobody could say for sure what that could mean.
Sergei Ivanov was charged with the honorable task of clearing the confusing declaration of the two prime ministers that Russian-Indian relations will flourish from now on.
So, the contract on the 2012 completion of the Admiral Gorshkov was still signed. The deputy prime minister refused outright to name the price, but Kommersant discovered that the Indians offered $1.4bn.
The Russian party can only blame itself for the initial downgrade of the aircraft carrier's modernisation price tag. Oh, they meant no harm – they simply couldn't imagine the ship's poor condition. On the other hand, without characteristic Russian hope for the better, the contract wouldn't have been signed at all – had the real price been made public from the beginning, the Indians never would have agreed to it. Now, through the pains of negotiation, we have the first example of the actual modernisation of anything, even if it's still paper-bound.
Some said that from now on the Indians would never buy a ship from us, whether used or new. But there's no need for that: we had one and got rid of it.
In addition, Ivanov said that a contract on the supply of 29 MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB fighter jets was signed. The jets will be parked on the aircraft carrier's deck, and until then at Indian airbases.
Sergei Ivanov rendered this journalist speechless with the notion that an agreement on the construction of up to 16 NPP units on three sites ("Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko... eh, Kiriyenko shall be satisfied..." –AK) was signed as well. A quarter of the commission will go to the Indians and another quarter - to the "leading players in that field."
"And approximately 50% will stay with Russian contributors," the deputy prime minister said with downcast eyes. He also spoke briefly on two GLONASS agreements: one for the supply of equipment for civil transport, about which Vladimir Putin spoke so passionately during the internet-conference (persuasive, isn't he?), and another on high-precision equipment for the army. Ivanov called the second agreement an act of unprecedented trust in the Indian party.
In that light, the first one is a show of trust in the Russians.
Sergei Ivanov left like a man who did his part, but even with his head down, he couldn't keep from showing a satisfied smile.
Andrei Kolesnikov