Vladimir Putin is arriving in India with a power-pact delegation today for a two-day state visit, particularly focused on the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit. A visit that is heavily weighted towards energy resurrection, defence diplomacy and an intent to bypass western narrative Russian President’s diplomatic entourage includes his internal coterie, consisting of state oligarchs and private tycoons.
‘Enormous’ applications for Russian delegation’s India visit alongside Putin
There is a huge interest in Putin’s India visit, which marks his first since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict. Ahead of the international leader’s meeting with PM Modi, the Kremlin said that they were left with no choice but to cut down on volunteer delegation applications showing willingness to visit India.
“Frankly speaking, we had to cut corners and eliminate some of those willing to participate, because the interest in cooperation with India is, one might say, enormous,” the Kremlin aide said.
Full Russian delegation coming to India
Energy Delegation
With oil expected to take centre stage during Putin’s India visit the one man who will grab limelight will be Rosneft CEO, Igor Sechin. Putin’s delegation will include other chief executives of dominant Russian lender Sberbank and state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, an industry source told Reuters.
Chief of sanctioned Russian refinery Rosneft’s CEO Igor Sechin, will possibly mark the most crucial appearance.
Given the current state of affairs, the crude linked to Rosneft is currently being viewed as a “sanctioned molecule” by the United Stated, with sanctions being levied on the export of the oil produced by it. His main agenda would be to ensure oil supplies are opened at the earliest.
Before taking over Rosneft in 2012, Sechin has held powerful posts inside the Russian state, including the role of Deputy Prime Minister inside the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin. He is widely regarded as one of Putin’s closest confidants and a leading figure among Russia’s “siloviki”, a network of former security-service officials who wield influence over energy, defence and strategic policymaking
Andrei Kostin, the CEO of Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB, will be another big name in Putin’s troupe.
Known as “Putin’s Banker.” Heavily sanctioned VTB will try to finalise the alternative payment rails (outside SWIFT) that allow Indian exporters to get paid. Kostin has acknowledged that Indian banks were wary of doing transactions with Russian firms while its was difficult to settle trade in national currencies because India’s exports to Russia were too small. According to a Reuters report, VTB has an office in New Delhi and plans to open an office in Mumbai. Kostin feels India has the potential to increase exports to Russia, especially of machinery and pharmaceutical products.
Rupee-Dominated Delegation
Sberbank India CEO of Ivan Nosov is leading the delegation’s specific talks on rupee-denominated infrastructure investments. Ahead of the visit, Sberbank said it is interested in investing in Indian infrastructure projects making use of rupees, in which a big chunk of two-way trade is settled.
Defence Delegation
Defence is expected to be another major focus area for the Russia delegation and the men heading their rhetoric will be -Rosoboronexport CEO, Alexander Mikheev, and Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Director, Dmitry Shugayev.
Talks are expected to be led by the Russian Defence Minister as India will likely focus on defence deals like the S-400 and Su-57 fighter jets. The S-400 system has already played a significant role during India’s Operation Sindoor in May, enabling a fierce strike on Pakistani terror-based infrastructures.
Heads of space agency Roscosmos: Ahead of the India-Russia meet, Director General Dmitry Bakanov told Indian news outlet WION, “India is our great partner in space, and in the near future we have to co-operate in engines. “We will sign a contract on the engine programme. We give some engines to India and, by licence, make production here. Then orbit interaction.”
Russian Government officials
Vitaly Savelyev, First Deputy PM Denis Manturov
Defence Minister Andrey Belousov
#WATCH | Delhi | Defence Minister of Russia Andrei Belousov inspects the Tri-Service Guard of Honour in the presence of the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the Manekshaw Centre.
— ANI (@ANI) December 4, 2025
The Russian Defence Minister will co-chair the 22nd India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on… pic.twitter.com/gNu2xLCtUM
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov
Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullin
Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut
Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov
Health Minister Mikhail Murashko
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev
Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin
Federal Customs Service representatives
Financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring (Director – Yuri Chikhanchin)
– Media representative: Editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan (of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, aka Russia Today) will be joined by President Putin at the launch of RT’s new Indian channel in New Delhi, according to Brics News.
– Other crucial business community members: Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers, Sberbank CEO Ivan Nosov, heads of industrial group Basic Element and Russian aluminium company Rusal (both founded by Oleg Deripaska), Roskhim, rail transport company Transmashholding Kirill Lipa, CEO of the Science-and-Production Centre Mineral Coating Technologies LLC, Stanislav Kislov
