NEW DELHI – Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted Moscow’s long-term strategic partnership with New Delhi on Friday, 5 December, by formally launching the Indian edition of the state-funded global news channel RT (Russia Today). The launch took place alongside the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit and marks a major new push in Russia’s global soft power outreach, at a time when RT remains banned across the European Union.
Russian officials have called the move the network’s most important overseas step so far. More than a straightforward media rollout, it doubles as a clear geopolitical signal. It places India, which has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, at the centre of Moscow’s effort to reach one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing media markets from a non-Western, non-aligned base.
A New Outlet for a ‘Time-Tested Friend’
The opening of RT India was one of the headline events of President Putin’s two-day state visit to India, his first since the war in Ukraine began. The visit began with a warm welcome from Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Palam Airport and led to detailed summit talks at Hyderabad House. Both leaders repeated the same main line: the “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership” between India and Russia is intact, despite rising pressure from Western capitals, especially Washington, over New Delhi’s continued intake of discounted Russian oil and defence supplies.
For the Kremlin, the RT office in New Delhi, staffed by more than 100 employees and producing four English-language news programmes each day, offers a strong new loudspeaker. The channel says it wants to give an “alternative narrative” to what its team calls the “one-sided narrative” of Western media. Its slogan, “Not Anti-Western Just Not Western”, sums up the intent to push back against Western media dominance that has shut out many Russian viewpoints since the war began.
“This initiative will allow detailed coverage of events in Russian-Indian relations as well as objectively reflect the growing role of our countries in the modern multipolar world,” said Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, stressing the shared outlook on global affairs in Moscow and New Delhi.
The launch came alongside five new media cooperation agreements between India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati and several Russian media groups. These accords are meant to expand joint work in broadcasting, content exchange, and information sharing, giving both sides a more structured way to work around traditional Western media channels.
Strategic Autonomy and a Careful Balancing Act
India’s choice to approve full-scale operations for RT at this point sends a strong message about its commitment to strategic autonomy, a core element of its foreign policy. New Delhi is deepening cooperation with the West, especially the United States, a key trade partner and counterweight to China, yet it still treats the relationship with Russia as a “time-tested” pillar.
This balancing act comes down to hard national interests. Russia remains India’s biggest source of defence equipment, and cheap Russian oil has saved India billions of dollars, helping shield its economy from sharp global price rises.
Summit discussions put heavy focus on protecting this large trade relationship, which reached $63.6 billion in 2024, from the hit of U.S. sanctions and on finding ways to trade without using the dollar. Negotiators looked at new defence deals, joint work on systems like the Pantsir air defence platform, and cooperation in areas such as small modular reactors and peaceful space projects.
The leaders also endorsed the Programme for the Development of Strategic Areas of Russian-Indian Economic Cooperation until 2030, which offers a long-term plan for industrial and trade ties. The document points to a deeper relationship that goes beyond short-term energy and defence needs and touches on labour mobility and steps towards a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union.
A New Front in the Global Media Contest
The start of RT India marks a clear step up in the global battle over information. In many Western capitals, RT is branded as a channel for Kremlin propaganda and disinformation. Its removal from the European Union’s airwaves after the Ukraine invasion was meant to block Russia’s message from reaching European audiences.
In India and across much of the Global South, public trust in Western-focused media is often mixed, and many viewers feel their own priorities are sidelined. RT wants to tap into this feeling and present a counter-story that fits with a stronger push for a multipolar world order, one less shaped by American and European voices.
The timing of the launch, with Russia’s top leadership in attendance, gave RT India maximum visibility and political weight. By openly backing the channel, the Modi government signals that it does not plan to let outside pressure dictate its foreign policy or decide which media platforms can operate in the country. The presence of Margarita Simonyan, RT’s powerful Editor-in-Chief, highlighted just how important this project is for Moscow.
For observers in Thailand and across the ASEAN region, where power shifts are watched closely, the launch shows how major states are juggling their ties. India’s decision to host RT underlines the limits of Western attempts to isolate Russia and shows growing cracks in the international order, as partners put their own interests ahead of strict camp politics.
The message is clear: the fight over narratives is heating up, and much of the action is moving to media outlets based in emerging regions.
The visit ended with a state banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu, but the effects of the RT India launch are likely to last. The new channel is set to reshape parts of the media landscape in South Asia and add another strong voice to the crowded geopolitical narrative emerging from New Delhi.
