In a bid to take ties with India beyond the defence sector, Russia is giving more freedom to its Provinces to engage with Indian States directly, Russian Province-level leaders told The Hindu .
“There is growing competition among Province like Astrakhan, Mordovia, and Bashkortostan to take advantage of the positive trend in India-Russia ties,” Vladimir Mazov, Minister of Economic Affairs of Mordovia told The Hindu .
Looking beyond MoscowRussia under President Vladimir Putin has been showcasing developments taking place in its Provinces, said Mr. Mazov, highlighting that some of the recent initiatives like the July 2015 Ufa summit of the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO) was aimed to attract attention to the Provinces far from Moscow.
“Moscow handles defence and strategic ties with India, but provinces have been given free hand to deal with India in the fields of agriculture, health, education, cultural cooperation,” said Mr. Mazov underlining that his Province has begun to promote Yoga as a visible sign of cooperation with India.
India and Russia had, during the inter-governmental discussion in October 2015 agreed to ramp up bilateral investment from $15 billion to $30 billion by 2025. In a promotional step Mr. Putin too has been highlighting his visits to the Provinces. “President Putin has gone hiking in the mountains of Bashkortostan with the idea of publicising the tourism industry of the region to the international community,” Sergey Novikov, Minister of Economic Development of Bashkortostan told The Hindu on Saturday.
“Bashkortostan which is the home of a flourishing defence industry has enjoyed cordial ties with India. But now we are looking at introducing another facet of our state which is home to the MiG fighter jets,” said Mr. Novikov.
