Russia Relations

• U.S.-Russia compromise formula on defence co-operation ,pledging to cooperate on missile defences and not to use them against each other.
• Russia will re-establish its permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean, more than two decades after it withdrew from the region.
  
  
  India And Russia Relations  
  
  
• Russia was unhappy with India’s refusal to waive civil liability for units III and IV of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) and failure to secure Russian telecom company Sistema’s massive investment in the joint venture, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL)
• India was concerned over a year-long delay in the delivery of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier. 
• Russia reaffirmed its readiness to share cutting-edge weapons technologies, leasing out the nuclear submarine Chakra and offering to jointly develop the fifth-generation fighter aircraft.
• According to an agreement signed on November 12, 2007 between ISRO and Roskosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, ISRO had the primary responsibility to provide both the orbiter and the rover, while Roskosmos was to design and build the lander for this combined orbiter-rover-lander mission.Due to failure of Roskosmos’ Phobos-Grunt mission,, as well as financial problems, the Russian agency apparently expressed its inability provide the lander to meet even the revised time frame of 2015 for the Chandrayaan-2 launch.
• The two countries have set the goal of boosting bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2015
• The only Hindu temple in Russia- the Iskcon Krishna temple in Moscow is facing the threat of demolition by the Russian authorities.
• As per Russian authorities, the temporary Iskcon temple violates the urban building code and has no legal grounds for existence. Indian embassy has sought an extension to the temple which is set to expire on December 31, 2012, until they complete the construction of a Vedic cultural centre.
• In 2011, Russia had sought to ban Bhagavad Gita. The move caused furore in Lok Sabha  and the Parliament had unanimously asked Russia to prevent the ban. 
• On Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to India, both nations moved further to strengthen their economic relations by inking a pact on a Kremlin-backed $2 billion investment fund and consenting to open talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that will also involve Belarus and Kazakhstan
• Finalised 10 agreements
• Two military contracts, worth about Rs. 20,000 crore
• To take the initial steps towards operating a “ranging station” that will help accurately fix the location of satellites.
• Equity participation through ONGC-OVL in existing and new projects in Siberia, Russia’s Far East and the Arctic Shelf.
• Both nations also decided to further their partnership in the energy sector, which has moved beyond investment (Sakhalin-I) to direct trade (Gazprom-Gail) and is now moving towards joint investment in downstream and upstream sectors.
• To encourage investments b/w the two nations, India’s State Bank of India (SBI) and Russian sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) came together to ink an MoU for setting up a $2 billion investment consortium. Both the groups would invest up to $1 billion each in the consortium.