Russia says it will deliver S-400 systems in 5 years

NEWDELHI: Russia will deliver the five S-400 air defence systems ordered by India under a $5.4-billion deal by 2025 and the two sides are creating a comprehensive system of payments insulated from US sanctions, Russian diplomats said on Friday.

At a briefing at the Russian embassy, ambassador Nikolay Kudashev described New Delhi’s actions in Jammu and Kashmir as an internal matter, and said the Kashmir issue should be handled bilaterally by India and Pakistan instead of being taken up at the UN Security Council.

Roman Babushkin, the deputy chief of mission, said production of the S-400 systems for India has started. “We are expecting the deliveries to be completed by 2025,” he said. India’s armed forces will soon receive the first batch of 5,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles made in India, and the two sides are close to signing a contract for 200 Kamov Ka-226 helicopters, under which 60 will be supplied by Russia and the rest made in India, Babushkin added.

As reported by HT, India last year made the first payment of $850 million for the S-400 systems through a special mechanism aimed at averting sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) of the US.

A senior US State Department official said on January 8 that India won’t receive a blanket waiver for the S-400 deal signed in 2018. Under CAATSA, countries making purchases worth more than $15 million from Russia’s state-owned defence firm could be subject to sanctions, though the US president has the authority to issue a waiver.

Kudashev described the system created by Russia and India to protect deals from US sanctions as a “work in progress”. The sanctions triggered by payments have complicated trade and investment, he said.

“[The two sides] are developing inter-bank cooperation, and enhancing and strengthening the position of national currencies in their trade and investment cooperation.

They are developing and testing the means of payments that are an alternative to the SWIFT system, which became one of the instruments for sanctions,” he said.