Russia’s Pivot to the East: Implications for India

About the Monograph

The war in Ukraine appears to have accelerated Russia’s long-standing “Pivot to Asia,” reshaping Moscow’s geopolitical orientation. This monograph, framed within a balance-of-power lens, examines the drivers, scope and durability of this pivot through Russia’s deepening but asymmetric partnership with China, its rejection of the Indo-Pacific construct and its warming ties with Pakistan. For India, these emerging dynamics often complicate the traditional “special and privileged” partnership with Russia, as Moscow’s rift with the West intersects with New Delhi’s own multi-alignment with the Western countries. The monograph concludes that India-Russia ties retain independent strategic value, anchored to new recalibrations and realistic expectations.

About the Author

Dr. Rajorshi Roy is Research Fellow at the Europe-Eurasia Centre of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi.
His areas of research and analysis include Eurasian security architecture as well as the foreign, defence, security and domestic policies of Russia and the Central Asian Republics. He has written extensively on these issues. He was a member of MP-IDSA’s web editorial team during 2019-20.

Dr. Roy has completed his Ph.D., M.Phil. and Masters in International Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He is an alumni of St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi (DU).