Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that any threats of sanctions against India would "boomerang immediately", asserting that New Delhi makes decisions based on its own national interests and remains free to choose its economic and strategic partners.
Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin praised India's independent foreign policy and highlighted his long-standing engagement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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"India always acts as a sovereign country and under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, any potential threats of sanctions would boomerang immediately. We have been in close talks with Prime Minister Modi for a long while... All the sanctions have been eliminated and the relationship between the USA and India is developing successfully, as I understand... India is free to choose the products that they consider to be most up to date, most applicable for them and obviously offering the best price-quality ratio. India is always guided by its national interests," said Russian President Vladimir Putin.
VIDEO | St Petersburg: Russian President Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026 says, âFrom a vertical, hierarchical model serving a very small group of countries, the world is shifting to a distributed and more comprehensive multipolar system.â⊠pic.twitter.com/sI9mNuJoqt
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 5, 2026
Russia-India ties not affected by politics
Putin also stressed that Moscow's relationship with New Delhi is not influenced by changing political circumstances.
"Our cooperation with India, just like with all other partners of ours, is not subject to the political environment. We can't be dictated to not deliver that to India. Nobody can dictate to us and nobody would even try to do that... We will always stand true to commitments given to our partners, especially partners like India," he further said.
The Russian leader described India as one of Moscow's key partners and reiterated Russia's commitment to maintaining cooperation across sectors.
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Putin says BRICS has overtaken G7
During his address, Putin also highlighted the growing economic influence of BRICS nations, saying the bloc had surpassed the G7 in terms of economic size.
"If you look at the global GDP dynamics of the last five years, you will see that almost half of its annual growth, 49%, is accounted for by Brics countries, whereas the contribution of the so-called group of seven is estimated at 18%...,"Putin said.
"The share of Brics and the world GDP based on purchasing power parity stands at 40%, whereas the G7 share is less than 29%," he said.
"So Brics has already overtaken the G7, and it did so back in 2020, but this gap is increasing. This gap is expected to grow in favour of Brics..." he added.
