Letter From the Editors

If you were to ask someone to name some similarities between Russia and India, most people would be left scratching their heads. Climate? No. Demographics? Nope. Cuisine? Not even close. Yet two major events this week – the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and parliamentary elections in India – are creating some unsettling parallels. In Russia’s Northern Capital, SPIEF organizers tried to shrug off the aftereffects of sanctions and gloated about delegations from 136 countries visiting the venue. While this included heavyweights like China and the UAE, many were Russian satellites like Belarus and the partially recognized Abkhazia.

If you were lucky enough to attend the SPIEF of the brave new world, what are some of the novelties you’d find, besides Zhenya the robot, who entertained visitors with “unfunny jokes”? Well, a brand-new Lada Iskra, which now comes in a fire-engine red (makes sense, with iskra being Russian for spark). This was a sensation, since due to those same pernicious sanctions, “cars were produced mainly in the simplest colors – black, white and gray,” Novaya gazeta Europe reports. And while speakers in times now gone (but probably not forgotten) included world leaders and heads of major corporations, today’s SPIEF was headlined mainly by the offspring of Putin’s inner circle: his own daughters (who share Abkhazia’s fate by being only partially recognized) as well as the likes of Ksenia Shoigu, Aleksandr Vaino and Roman Rotenberg (see how quickly you can look up their dads).

Even Russia’s “patriotic” Z community was not impressed, to put it mildly. After tabulating the cost of menu items available to VIPs – from Don ukha (fish stew) to coconut crème brulée – military bloggers were irate that this money was not sent to the front.

And yet, in a meeting with representatives of 16 global news agencies, Putin confidently discussed the fate of Ukraine, the failure of Western sanctions, and the situation in the US, which is “making mistake after mistake.” Those to receive accolades from the Russian leader were of course Belarus, and Azerbaijan – Putin thanked the latter for its “commitment to building interstate relations based on mutual interest – I would even say, to some extent, on mutual affection.” Meanwhile, Russia’s erstwhile South Caucasus ally, Armenia, was not even mentioned by the president.

Putin is not the only world leader to feel like he’s riding high. India’s Narendra Modi was certainly not shy about boasting of his party’s parliamentary successes this week. Putin should take a page from Modi’s book when it comes to name-dropping – the Indian prime minister claimed he was a messenger of God: “I am convinced that God sent me for a purpose. Once the purpose is achieved, my work will be done,” he said in an interview with Indian television.

In an interview with Novaya gazeta Europe, political commentator Hartosh Singh Bal draws some chilling parallels between Putin’s Russia and India, which Modi has ruled since 2014: Using the security services and financial instruments to exert pressure on the opposition, leveraging religion to rally voters, and undermining freedom of the press and democratic institutions in the country. “Political opponents were sent to prison. Now that the BJP has held on to power, we are seeing an acceleration of this process,” says Bal. He also does not rule out India reaching the same level of repressions as Putin’s Russia.

But the BJP’s victory was not as astounding as initially predicted, writes NG: “Forecasts about a convincing victory have not held up,” Modi’s alliance will win a “narrow majority.” Perhaps Modi overestimated the religious factor in his election platform. As Vinay Shukla, an Indian journalist, told NG: “The BPJ bet on Hinduism. But we have hundreds of deities. Different people have their own gods. And they vote differently. The elections showed that the principles of democracy truly are working in the country.”