Will Putin’s visit to the world’s largest democracy ‘resuscitate the flagging relationship’ Russia currently shares with it, as this commentator in the Financial Times puts it?  For a considerable period Russia has held the position of number one arms supplier to India, with enthusiastic shipments of Sukhoi jets and submarines dispatched to the Indian subcontinent, oiling the cogs of Moscow-Mumbai cooperation.  This Financial Times piece looks at the creeping threat of competition from the US and sees Putin’s overtures tap into historical ties rooted in the Soviet era.  Another editorial points out though that perhaps Russia has its own secret weapon to stave off competition from elsewhere:

Mr Putin is making an aggressive pitch that it will be his country that brings India’s air-strike capabilities into the 21st century. During talks today with Manmohan Singh, his Indian counterpart, he will play an ace card: technology that others, such as the US, are reluctant to give India.

He will extend Moscow’s hand of co-operation in building a fifth-generation fighter jet – the T50 PAK FA.