With Vladimir Putin arriving in India this week for a summit of emerging economies, the Russian state broadcaster RT has launched its first Hindi language channel, underscoring the growing relationship between New Delhi and Moscow, despite mounting Western scrutiny due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
RT only just launched an English-language bureau in India last December, during a state visit by the Russian president who called the inauguration “momentous”.
But the international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said RT's expansion in India risked the spread of yet more disinformation.
"The launch of RT India is part of a broader strategy to expand the Russian propaganda apparatus under the guise of international media," said Celia Mercier, head of RSF South Asia Desk.
"Presented as a news channel, RT is in reality an instrument serving the Kremlin, designed to disseminate a narrative aligned with Russian geopolitical interests."
Roman Babushkin, chargé d'affaires of the Russian Embassy in India, tried to claim that RT’s expansion to target India's largest mass language news market was aimed at providing the Hindi-speaking audience "reliable and objective" information.
RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said: "We want to speak not only about India but also with India – that’s why now we are also available in Hindi."
India and Russia have long maintained close ties. New Delhi considers Russia something of an ally from the Cold War era with cooperation in defence, oil, nuclear energy and space exploration.
India started looking for Soviet arms supplies after its bloody war with China in 1962 and bought its first aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, from Russia in 2004.
India is also one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil, and that trade has helped Moscow replenish its coffers despite sweeping Western sanctions due to the years-long war on Ukraine.
New Delhi's ties with Moscow have often faced scrutiny, particularly from the US and European governments.
“Our two leaders are in a very close personal contact, they are very pragmatic… and they are as sincere as to be able to discuss in a very open and constructive way the most sensitive issues on the global agenda and our bilateral relations," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Putin arrived in New Delhi on Friday to hold talks with Mr Modi ahead of the summit of Brics leaders on 12 and 13 September, which will also see the participation on Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time in seven years.
Putin and Modi are expected to discuss Western sanctions, energy deals, sales of Su-57 fighter aircraft along with the potential for Russian involvement in setting up new nuclear power plants in India.
Peskov said Indian and Russian shared interested were “being discussed discreetly, but in a very, very constructive manner”.
He said India had expressed interest in the Russian market and broadening their investments in the Russian economy.
During Putin’s 2025 visit, Russia’s National Media Group, a media company close to the Kremlin, inked cooperation deals with Prasar Bharati, the national broadcaster of India.
Russia's trade with India reached a record $70bn in 2024, tripling since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, when India stepped up imports of Russian oil, despite global sanctions.
Bilateral trade fell in 2025 when those sanctions were tightened but rebounded in the first half of 2026. Crude oil accounts for around 80 per cent of India’s imports from Russia, according to the think-tank ORF.
The Brics nations – originally Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and has expanded to involve 11 countries in this weekend’s summit – have previously explored alternatives to dollar-based payments, including a proposal by Brasilia for a common currency for the group, though the plan never advanced. US president Donald Trump had warned the bloc against such a move by threatening to impose even higher tariffs if the plan went ahead.
Modi and Putin met less than a fortnight ago on 31 August during another regional summit in Kyrgyzstan, where in an awkward moment Modi urged his “friend” to end the years-long war in Ukraine for “the sake of humanity”.
“Every day that the war continues, humanity is, in effect, set back a step, whilst every step towards peace gives all of humanity real hope for peace. We need to move from endless war to an end to the war, to a cessation of hostilities,” Modi said. “And we will need to move precisely in this direction.”
A week later, India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Kyiv and said New Delhi was ready to help bring an end to the war. “If India can be of any help, in any manner, we are there,” Jaishankar said.
Modi had previously called for peace in eastern Europe, but stopped short of criticising Russia over the war. The matter is sure to be raised again over the weekend, though it is unlikely to shake the foundations of the India-Russia relationship.
Peskov told reporters: “We know the position of India on the Ukrainian conflict... it corresponds with our own position, because we do want the solution of the Ukrainian conflict by peaceful means, and Russia is open to this process.”
