Russia begins supplying missiles to India, even at risk of US sanctions

A Russia started to supply the India S-400 air defense missile systems, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday (14), citing Dmitry Shugayev, head of the Russian military cooperation agency.

Supplies put India at risk of receiving sanctions from the USA under a 2017 law aimed at preventing countries from purchasing Russian military equipment.

“The delivery of the first supplies has already started,” Shugayev said at an aerospace fair in Dubai, according to Interfax agency. He said the first unit of an S-400 system will arrive in India by the end of this year.

The $5.5 billion deal for five long-range surface-to-air missile systems that India says it needs to contain a threat from China, was signed in 2018.

India faces the possibility of receiving a series of financial sanctions from the United States under the Act to Combat America’s Adversaries through Sanctions (CAATSA), which names Russia as an adversary, alongside the North Korea e do Will, for its actions against Ukraine, interfering in the 2016 US elections and helping Syria.

New Delhi said it has a strategic partnership with the United States and Russia, while Washington told India that the country is unlikely to obtain an exemption from CAATSA.

Last year, the United States imposed sanctions citing CAATSA on Turkey, an ally of the Otan (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) for acquiring Russian S-400 missiles. The sanctions targeted Turkey’s main defense development and acquisition body, the Presidency of Defense Industries.

Washington also removed the Turkey of a stealth F-35 fighter program, the most advanced aircraft in the US arsenal, used by NATO members and other US allies.

Russia said it has offered help to Turkey in developing advanced combat fighters, but no agreement has been reached so far. “We are still at a stage of negotiations on this project,” said Shugayev, according to the RIA agency.