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Putin’s Visit to India: Ukraine Peace Efforts and Agenda Discussed | Latest Updates on Vladimir Putin’s Visit
New Delhi, India – Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting India starting Thursday for the first time since Moscow’s war on Ukraine broke out more than four years ago, even as a renewed push by the United States to end the conflict appears to have stalled.
Putin’s 30-hour speed trip also coincides with a tense turn in relations between Washington and New Delhi, with the US also punishing India with tariffs and a sanctions threat for its strong historic ties with Russia and a surge in its purchase of Russian crude during the Ukraine war.
That tension has, in turn, made India’s longstanding balancing act between Russia and the West an even more delicate tightrope walk.
Since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India has tried to avoid getting locked into formal alliances with any superpower, leading the non-aligned movement during the Cold War, even though in reality it drifted closer to the Soviet Union from the 1960s. Since the end of the Cold War, it has deepened strategic and military ties with the US while trying to keep its friendship with Russia afloat.
Yet, Russia’s war on Ukraine has challenged that balance – and Putin’s visit could offer signs of how Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to juggle New Delhi’s competing relationships without sacrificing any of them.
What’s scheduled for Putin?
Putin is expected to land on Thursday evening and head for a private dinner with Modi at the prime minister’s residence in the heart of the Indian capital, New Delhi.
On the morning of Friday, December 5, Putin is scheduled to visit Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, for a guard of honour and a meeting with India’s ceremonial head of state, Droupadi Murmu. He will then, like all visiting leaders, travel to Raj Ghat, the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi.
Then, Putin and Modi will meet at Hyderabad House, a complex that hosts most leadership summits for the latest chapter of an annual India-Russia summit. After that, they are scheduled to meet business leaders, before attending a banquet thrown in Putin’s honour by Murmu, the Indian president.
Earlier, the Kremlin said in a statement that Putin’s visit to India was “of great importance, providing an opportunity to comprehensively discuss the extensive agenda of Russian-Indian relations as a particularly privileged strategic partnership”.
Putin will be joined by Andrei Belousov, his defence minister, and a wide-ranging delegation from business and industry, including top executives of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, and reportedly the heads of sanctioned oil firms Rosneft and Gazprom Neft.
Why is the timing of the visit significant?
The visit comes as India and Russia mark 25 years of a strategic partnership that began in Putin’s first year in office as his country’s head of state.
But even though India and Russia like to portray their relationship as an example of a friendship that has remained steady amid shifting geopolitical currents, their ties haven’t been immune to pressures from other nations.
Since 2000, New Delhi and Moscow have had in place a system of annual summits: The Indian prime minister would visit Russia one year, and the Russian president would pay a return visit to India the following year.
That tradition, however, was broken in 2022, the year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Modi was supposed to visit Russia for the summit, but the conclave was put off.
In 2023, Putin skipped a visit to India for the G20 summit in New Delhi. At the time, Putin was rarely travelling abroad, largely because of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant against him related to the Ukraine war. India is not a member of the ICC – and so it would have been safe for Putin to attend, but Western members of the G20 made it clear that their leaders would be uncomfortable sharing the room with the Russian president.
Finally, in 2024, the annual summit resumed, with Modi visiting Russia. And now, Putin will land in New Delhi after four years.
What’s on the agenda?
Trade analysts and political experts expect Putin to push for India to buy more Russian missile systems and fighter jets, in a bid to boost defence ties and explore more areas to expand trade, including pharmaceuticals, machinery and agricultural products.
The summit “offers an opportunity for both sides to reaffirm their special relationship amidst intense pressure on India from [US] President [Donald] Trump with punitive tariffs,” Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst for India at Crisis Group, a US-based think tank, told Al Jazeera.
Putin, analysts said, will be seeking optical dividends from the summit.
“President Putin can send a very strong message to his own people, and also to the international community, that Russia is not isolated in the world,” said Rajan Kumar, a professor of international studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
“Russia is being welcomed by a democracy when Putin faces pressure for the war in Ukraine,” Kumar told Al Jazeera.
But visuals aside, a key driver of the India-Russia relationship – oil trade – is now at risk. And that, along with the shadow of the man responsible for the disruption, will be hovering over talks, said experts.
Is Trump an overshadowing factor in the summit?
India became the second-largest buyer of Russian crude after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 – an increase of a staggering 2,250 percent in imports, as Russia’s share in its imports went from 1 percent to 40 percent.
The US at the time quietly encouraged India to buy more Russian oil, New Delhi says. The West was stopping purchases of Russian crude, and a complete global ban on that oil would have shrunk global supplies, raising prices. India, by increasing its uptake of Russian oil, helped stabilise the global market.
But as Trump, in his second term, has looked for levers to use to pressure Moscow and Kyiv to end the war, he has targeted India for buying Russian oil. After initially imposing 25 percent tariffs on Indian goods, Trump doubled that to 50 percent as a penalty for Russian crude purchases.
For months after that, India continued importing Russian oil and defended what it called its “strategic autonomy”.
However, in October, Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil firms – Rosneft and Lukoil – and threatened sanctions against firms of other countries that trade with them.
Reliance, India’s largest private oil refiner – and the biggest buyer of Russian oil in India – has since said that it will no longer export petroleum products that use Russian crude.
Indian imports of Russian crude are expected to fall to a three-year low now. Meanwhile, India recently signed a deal to dramatically ramp up its import of gas from the US.
In the defence sector too, the US has been pressuring India to buy more from it and less from Russia.
“New Delhi is wary of upsetting Washington regarding its defence deals with Moscow, but that’s not going to deter it from making important deals,” said Donthi, the analyst at Crisis Group. “India hopes to blunt US criticism by making similar deals with it, some of which are already under way.”
But Trump’s pressure risks hurting goodwill for the US in India.
Kanwal Sibal, former Indian foreign secretary and an ex-ambassador to Russia, said Trump and the US were employing “double standards”.
“Trump can roll out a red carpet for Putin in Alaska. Why should India not build on its ties with Russia then?” he added, referring to the Trump-Putin summit in August.
In which sector are India-Russia ties strong?
While the bilateral energy ties between India and Russia face several barriers, their defence ties are steadier.
Russia remains India’s largest defence supplier, accounting for roughly 36 percent of arms imports, and more than 60 percent of India’s existing arsenal.
Import numbers have come down from 72 percent in 2010, as India attempts to boost domestic production and also buy more from the US and European nations. But experts say that Russia’s position as India’s pre-eminent defence partner will likely remain unchallenged for several years.
The Russian S-400 missile defence system was central to India’s air defences during its four-day air war with Pakistan in May. India’s air force chief, Marshal AP Singh, said that “the S-400 was a game changer” for India.
New Delhi is now looking to buy additional S-400 air defence systems. Russia, meanwhile, wants to also sell India its Su-57 fifth-generation stealth fighter jets. “The SU-57 is the best plane in the world,” said Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, ahead of the summit. “And it will be on the agenda.”
What are India-Russia trade prospects?
India-Russia trade has undergone a major shift since 2022, ballooning from a modest $10bn to a record nearly $69bn this year, primarily fuelled by New Delhi’s appetite for discounted Russian crude oil.
However, these numbers remain lopsided: Indian exports, largely pharmaceuticals and machinery, stand at roughly $5bn, resulting in a widening $64bn trade deficit. And Russia’s exports to India have been dominated by oil over the past three years. With trade now expected to fall, so will overall numbers, caution experts. The India-Russia goal of reaching $100bn in trade by 2030 appears distant.
Instead, analysts told Al Jazeera, the two countries now appear to be betting on labour migration as a driver of people-to-people and economic ties.
According to the estimates of the Russian Ministry of Labour, by 2030, the country is expected to see a shortfall of 3.1 million workers. Indian workers could fill that gap.
“Russia is opening up its labour market for India and looking to change its traditional supplier of labour from Central Asian countries to India,” said Kumar, the professor of international studies. “This kind of migration can have a positive impact on India-Russia relations.”
That won’t change the fundamental tension that undergirds India’s ties with Russia: New Delhi’s keenness to not damage relations with the US in the process.
As India simultaneously negotiates trade deals with the US, the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union, an economic bloc led by Russia at the moment, New Delhi is walking a fine line “where it risks antagonising either of them, who are all important economic trade partners,” said Kumar.
The one thing that could help: a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, say analysts.
Spyre Therapeutics CEO Turtle Cameron offloads $435k worth of stock
Spyre Therapeutics CEO Turtle Cameron sells $435k in stock
Intoxicated raccoon discovered unconscious on liquor store premises following break-in
Staff at a Virginia liquor store got a shock on Saturday when they came into work to find a raccoon had burgled the store, drinking its way through the spirits section.
The “masked bandit” was found passed out in the bathroom between the toilet and bin having helped itself to bottles on a bottom shelf.
Animal control officer Samantha Martin transported the “suspect” for questioning at Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter but not before it had a chance to sober up.
After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover), the animal was safely released back into the wild.
The Ashland ABC store had been closed for Thanksgiving when it suffered its “Black Friday break-in”.
When staff arrived on Saturday they found smashed bottles and liquor pooling on the floor, including its apparent tipple of choice, scotch.
Officer Martin said the animal had fallen through one of the ceiling tiles before going “on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything”.
Only one blurry CCTV image of the boozy break-in exists, so it’s unknown just how much alcohol the thirsty creature consumed before passing out in the bathroom.
In a social media post, the store thanked Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter for its professionalism and providing its visitor with a “sober ride home”.
Officer Martin said it was “just another day in the life of an animal control officer”.
Bitcoin rebounds with a more than 10% increase following a challenging week
Bitcoin is known for its volatility—and lately it’s living up to that reputation. After a weeks-long stretch of decline, Bitcoin’s price jumped around 11% in the last two days alone, climbing to just under $93,000.
The original cryptocurrency’s price hike follows Vanguard’s decision to let its customers buy and sell crypto ETFs, in a turnaround from its longtime aversion to the sector.
“Market jitters were calmed by the news that Vanguard was reversing its long held decision to ban crypto ETFs from its platform,” said Russell Thompson, chief investment officer at Hilbert Group. “That potentially opens up crypto access to its 50 million brokerage customers.”
Prior to the surge, the week had started off disastrously for Bitcoin. From Sunday into Monday, the major cryptocurrency dropped 8% in part because of Japan raising their two-year bond yield to a 17-year high. That dip punctuated a nearly two-month long slide for the original cryptocurrency. Six weeks after its $126,000 high in early October, Bitcoin plunged 35% to a low of $82,000.
Crypto’s struggles for much of October and November showed that the sector is often tied to macroeconomic factors. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats to China were followed by an October flash crash for crypto, where traders lost $19 billion in assets. And for much of those two months, a December rate cut from the Federal Reserve seemed unlikely, pulling investors away from risky assets.
The outlook appears to be a bit rosier for those in the crypto industry, as a Fed rate cut now seems likely. The shift in sentiment stems from recent remarks by New York Fed President John Williams, who spoke optimistically about cutting rates.
“With a Fed rate cut expected at the December meeting, liquidity should remain supportive of risk assets into 2026,” Thompson added.
Indigenous Rights: Last Native American WWII D-Day veteran Charles Shay passes away at 101
Charles Shay, the last surviving Native American World War II D-Day veteran, died at his home in France on Wednesday. An army medic, he patched up US soldiers under heavy fire in the surf on the beaches of Normandy in 1944. He earned a Silver Star and three Bronze Stars. He was 101.
Published On 3 Dec 2025
MBW10: Ten Years of Headlines That Defined the Modern Music Industry
When Music Business Worldwide launched in 2015, streaming was still fighting to prove itself. Spotify had yet to turn a profit, Apple Music didn’t exist, and the recorded music industry was still nursing wounds from a decade of decline.
A lot has changed.
Today, MBW celebrates a milestone: ten years covering one of the most dynamic sectors of global entertainment.
We do so via MBW10: 2015-2025: a specially curated retrospective magazine that chronicles the seismic shifts, landmark deals, and defining moments that have shaped the music business across the past decade.
From the explosion of catalog acquisitions to Universal Music Group‘s historic IPO; from the global growth of the independent sector to fierce industry debates over streaming economics; from executive shake-ups to the emergence of AI as the music biz’s next great disruptor – the magazine revisits the stories that mattered most.
But MBW10 – supported by Chorus TM – is much more than a collection of headlines.
Featuring exclusive year-by-year insight and analysis, the retrospective offers context that only comes from having covered these developments as they unfolded.
It also includes comprehensive annual global data from IFPI, charting the remarkable financial recovery of the recorded music industry.
The past decade has seen worldwide recorded music revenues more than double, driven by streaming’s dominance.
It’s also witnessed the birth of new power players, the return of music as an attractive asset class, and fundamental questions about how artists, labels, and platforms should share the spoils.
MBW has been there for all of it – breaking news, interrogating the numbers, and providing analysis that industry professionals rely on daily.
Whether you’ve followed MBW from the beginning or discovered us more recently, this retrospective offers a chance to revisit the stories that brought us here – and consider where the next decade might take us.
Commemorative physical copies of the magazine are now on their way to global industry leaders as well as MBW+ physical magazine subscribers (just in time for the Holidays).
For everyone else, the book is available to read and download digitally HERE or below.
The final page of MBW10 explains something that the entire MBW team thoroughly believes in:
The music industry makes for great copy – thanks to all of you. Cheers for giving us something interesting to write about every day.
Here’s to the next decade.Music Business Worldwide
Ukraine warns Putin to stop wasting the world’s time following US talks in Moscow
ReutersUkrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has accused Vladimir Putin of “wasting the world’s time”, a day after high-stakes talks between the US and Russia over ending the war in Ukraine failed to produce tangible results.
“Russia must end the bloodshed it has started. If this doesn’t happen and Putin just spits into the world’s face once again, there must be consequences,” Sybiha said.
Still, Sybiha added that the US delegation had told his colleagues that the talks had been of “positive significance for the peace process” and they had invited Ukrainian officials to continue talks in the US in the near future.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner spent almost five hours with Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday and the White House said on Wednesday they had briefed Trump after a “thorough, productive meeting”.
The US-Russia talks followed days of US meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders, after concerns had been expressed that a deal was being hatched that was too slanted towards Russia’s demands.
Little concrete headway appears to have been made during the Kremlin talks in reconciling Moscow and Kyiv’s positions.
Reuters/Pool/SputnikPutin’s senior policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said “no compromise” on ending the war had been found. “Some of the US proposals look more or less acceptable, though they need to be discussed further”, he said, while adding that others had been openly criticised by Russia’s leader.
Although Ushakov did not elaborate further, at least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and Kyiv – the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Kyiv and its European partners believe that, even in the event of a peace deal, the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future would be to grant Ukraine membership of Nato.
Russia is vehemently opposed to such a proposal, and Trump too has repeatedly signalled he has no intention of letting Kyiv into the alliance.
The prospect of Ukraine joining Nato was a “key question” that was tackled in Moscow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Ushakov implied that the Russian negotiating position had been strengthened thanks to recent successes on the battlefield.
Russian soldiers had “helped make the assessments of our foreign partners regarding the paths to a peace settlement more appropriate,” he said.
Ahead of the US visit to the Kremlin, Putin was filmed in army fatigues at a Russian command post, being briefed by commanders claiming the conquest of the key strategic city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, as well as other nearby settlements.
Fighting in Pokrovsk is continuing and Russian forces do not control the whole city, but Russian officials clearly believe their message of military gains has been heard by the US.
Russian forces have made some incremental advances in the east and appear to have stepped up their campaign in recent weeks. They seized about 701 sq km (270 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory in November, according to AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and they now control 19.3% of Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said Putin was ready to keep meeting with the Americans “as many times as needed”.
But as Russian-American relations appear to grow more cordial, the gulf between Moscow and Europe widens.
Putin has accused Europe of sabotaging Russia’s relations with the US, of putting forward demands Moscow could not accept and of blocking the peace process. Shortly before meeting Witkoff and Kushner, Putin told a forum in Moscow that while he did not want conflict with Europe, he was “ready for war”.
ReutersUK government officials rejected Putin’s message as “yet more Kremlin claptrap from a president who isn’t serious about peace”.
Nato foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday and Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that it was positive that peace talks were taking place but Ukraine had to be put in “the strongest position to keep the fight going”.
Meanwhile, EU member states have reached a deal with members of the European Parliament to make Europe fully independent of Russian gas before the end of 2027.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed “the dawn of a new era”, under a deal that means long-term gas pipeline contracts with Russia will be banned from September 2027 and long-term contracts for liquefied natural gas will be banned from January 2027.
“We’ve chosen energy security and independence for Europe. No more blackmail. No more market manipulation by Putin. We stand strong with Ukraine,” EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Wednesday.
The Commission is also proposing to raise €90bn for Ukraine to fund its military and basic services while Russia’s war continues.
The plan would either require Belgium to agree to a “reparations loan” using frozen Russian assets held in a financial institution in Brussels, or the money would be funded by international borrowing.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has welcomed the proposal, which would cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs for the next two years.
Belgium has resisted the plan to use frozen assets held on its territory, over concerns about legal repercussions from Moscow. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also opposed the idea, saying it would not act as a backstop for a reparations loan.
The proposed loan is smaller than the planned €140bn loan initially planned and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “we support this and, of course, take Belgium’s concerns seriously”.
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Roberto Duran perfectly captures Anthony Joshua’s fight against Jake Paul
Roberto Duran has shared his thoughts on Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul preparing to go toe-to-toe in their heavyweight dust-up on December 19.
The pair will square off in an eight-round professional contest at the Kaseya Center, Miami, with many deeming this to be a rather straightforward comeback fight for Joshua.
‘AJ’ has not fought since his fifth-round stoppage defeat to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, where he touched the canvas four times.
Since then, the 36-year-old has opted to leave Ben Davison, the head coach for his last three outings, and join the training team of heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk.
This, Joshua believes, should allow the two-time world champion to not only rediscover his prior form, but also add a few extra strings to his bow.
After his fight with Paul, which he expects to come through in emphatic fashion, Joshua is then set to return to action as soon as February rolls around.
Expecting a far tougher challenge than what his upcoming assignment will likely offer, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Olympic champion has made these major changes to his training set-up.
In fact, there are some who have suggested that the matchup could be scripted, or at least includes several elements that may make it a more competitive spectacle.
One of those more sceptical onlookers, it seems, is Duran, who has revealed his view of the controversial fight in an interview with IFL TV.
“This is obviously not a real fight; it’s just a pure film. I’m very interested to see what happens but, if it was a real fight, I think we all know what would happen.
“Will it be a film or will it be the real thing? If it’s going to be scripted, talk to my sons – they’ll know what will happen.”