Q: Your Excellency,  every time I read one of the most popular Russian literary magazines, I come across your nice photo and your warm greetings to the readers. The magazine was prepared within the framework of our national years. On the occasion of Indian Republic Day, it’s our turn namely - THE VOICE OF RUSSIA to present you our warm greetings, best wishes to you, to all Indians and wish you happiness prosperity and further development of Indo-Russia relation.
 
A: Thank you thank, you very much. This is indeed a very important occasion in our social and political calendar. Greetings from radio station as your coming on behalf of the people of Russia, means a lot to us. Thank you.

Q: Quite recently the year of India in Russia was finished and in 2008, there was the year of Russia in India. What are your assessments about the exchange of national years between our 2 countries?
A: well, my assessment is that they were indeed a very timely initiative and they have produced the results that were anticipated and which we worked very hard to achieve. The year of Russia again has revived a great deal of interest among the Indian people in Russia culture and we ourselves worked very hard on the year of India in the last year. We had closed to 100 events that happened – cultural, political seminars this and that. I am glad to say that they all went very well. One year is never enough and we are very clear the year of India, the year of Russia is just one step in our overall cultural co-operation which must continue at an intensified pace. So, we have more plans even if we won’t call it the year of India but of course our cultural co-operation will continue and the idea is to reach out to the younger generations.

Q: What exchanges, important visits are planned for the year that has just started?
A: We have quite a lot of plans. The Annual Summit is to be held in Delhi this year that will be sometime towards the end of the year and in the run up to that we will have a number of our annual forums that will meet both on economic side and defence side. And on the economic side, the number of instruments has actually grown. We will have the governmental commission, we will have the forum meeting and we will have the CEO council meeting and of course we are going to kick off the year very well by a visit by Prime Minister, Putin early in the year. We will also obviously have a number of visitors from India to Russia. We are still finalising those details. But, we expect to get a very high level of visitors coming in from India.
 
Part II:

Q: What fields of our co-operation bring you satisfaction?
A: I would say that our political relations are extremely good right now, extremely close. There is very good understanding between the 2 countries at all levels, starting obviously from the top but at working level also, at operation levels, very close understanding. In addition to the political, the diplomatic side, you know, the nuts and bolts of how you implement the understandings, there too the interface is extremely smooth. Our defence co-operation is going very well. Our economic co-operation is going well and I would say particularly on the energy side now there is good news- both on the conventional side which is hydrocarbons and on the nuclear side which both sides are quite eager to develop. So, I would say really there is good news across the board but if you want to know what is going to be my primary focus for the rest the year (Of Course) I would say it will still be the need to intensify our economic co-operation. I would say also, you know, that some of the mineral resources, particularly I would say diamonds for example is a very promising trade area and I would say IT is another of those areas that has not been sufficiently explored. There is a lot of potential there and I think there is a lot of benefit above all to Russian Companies in engaging with India in the IT sector more closely. On the investment sides, the news is not bad. Our embassy figures are that the total Indian investment in Russia cumulative is of the order of a little over 6 billion dollars. Russian investment is a little less but its also of the order of about 2 billion dollar. Some large investments have been made in the past say, 2 years and I am expecting that there will be more as we go forward.

Q: you are granting this interview for the “VOICE OF RUSSIA” on the verge of the Republic Day amidst the Russian frosts and smells. How do you feel yourself?

A: I have lived in Moscow now for 10 years, over 3 assignments. So, I have had plenty of time to get used to the winter. Actually, the winters so far have been mild compared to what I have experienced in the 70s. Winter then was really cold, you know.  What’s Moscow without a severe winter? So, quite happy!

Q: Do you go in for occasional skiing?
A: I have done a little cross country skiing, nothing more than that.

Q: Well, being ambassador, what part of Russia have you visited thoroughly?
A: Oh! I have visited pretty much every part of Russia. And again I am going on the experience of my last 10 years, in the Soviet Union I have been to every Republic. This time what I am planning is, in summer time I will probably do a little driving. I have some friends who live in different regions of Russia within motor driven distance. So my idea is to do a little of travel by road.

Q: Who are your friends?
A: Oh! I have good collection of friends. I must say, many of them are from the cultural line- writers, actors, ballad performers and so on. Many others are scholars. They are friends for life.

Q: In what way Russia changes to your mind?
A: Every society is changing all the time. I come from a country which has gone through huge changes. Globalisation has changed all of us, frequently for the better but not always. India is one of the countries that has done well out of globalisation. See, what’s happening in our culture, films are doing well, Indian cuisines is well known all over the world. Indian writers are doing extremely well. Look at the economy. The Indian economy seems to make a breakthrough. Even last year which was hard year for the rest of the world, we clocked about 7% GDP growth and this year it will be even better without having resorted to extreme stimulation measures. In the same way, I would say for Russia. Last year was a difficult one but otherwise it has grown well, grown very fast and owns the world’s third largest foreign exchange reserves. The country is stable. So, we rejoice in the good fortune of our friends.

Q: What is your attitude towards the future of the Indo-Russian relation?
A: I am extremely optimistic about the future of Indo-Russian relations and the reason is quite very simple: Number 1, I think there is, if you look across the board there is no conflict of interest between India and Russia. In fact, there is a congruence of interest on most of the issues that we as societies are faced with.

Number 2, there is an intense of comfort, there is sense of trust in dealing with each other. We had 60 years of experience and I think these 2 form the fundamentals of my optimism. It really is a friendship between the people of the 2 countries.