Putin's Landslide Win Expected to Further Erode US’ Hegemony

The victory of incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin by a record mandate of over 87 percent will further intensify BRICS-led efforts to chart a multilateral world order which would invariably lead to erosion of western hegemony, according to Indian experts.

"BRICS+ has emerged into a potent force and a robust mechanism that could effectively contribute to further expanding and strengthening multilateralism if it is able to circumvent the binary dimensions of Sino-US contestation. Russia is the chair this year, and there is a lot is on its plate," Ambassador Anil Trigunayat, a former Indian Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta, told Sputnik India.

The Indian envoy stated that Putin's victory was more or less expected because of the "external security challenges" faced by Russia, which is involved in Europe's biggest military operation since World War II.

Putin's landslide victory, the biggest of all the eight presidential contests held since 1991, is a "validation of [his] policies, both domestic and foreign. The election results have proved that Putin is immensely popular in Russia. Importantly, the results are a validation of Putin's policies during the Special Military Operation," Rajan Kumar, an Associated Professor at Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies (SIS) at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) told Sputnik India.

Multipolar Trend to Further Intensify With Putin's Re-Election

"While the US continues to be the pre-eminent military power, there are poles such as China in East Asia, Russia in Eurasia or India in South Asia, which have become really strong. These are strong regional powers and they have shown that won't be intimidated by the West. It is because of the collective bargaining of these powers that countries of Global South have refused to be intimidated by the West into condemning Russia for the Ukraine conflict," explained the JNU professor.

Kumar underscored the fact that most of the nations in the Global South harbour a strong anti-West sentiment: "They are firmly against hegemonistic policies or unilateral sanctions which the West has deployed from time to time.

The efforts towards creating a multilateral world architecture, according to him, would primarily be led by Russia and China.

India-Russia Ties to Continue to Remain Friendly and Stable

"I feel that our leadership is significantly invested in this special and privileged Indo-Russian strategic partnership based on mutual respect, trusts and interests and I believe it will be able to weather the downturns of geopolitical challenges for mutual benefit," remarked Trigunayat.

"India has demonstrated that it doesn't support western sanctions against Russia. India has made it clear that it won't let western countries dictate its military or economic relationship with Russia," the academic stressed.

Kumar emphasised that as India and Russia seek to diversify their relationship beyond defence, there was an "immense pressure on both the sides to intensify economic cooperation".

"We need to resolve two main issues facing our bilateral interactions - trade imbalance and payment issues - to enable swifter movement of capital between the two nations," he said, adding that the two startegic partners should try to find an "effective and long-term solution" to resolve both the problems, which he said were a consequence of disruptions caused by western sanctions.

Trade between Russia and India reached an all-time high of $45 billion last year, largely on account of Russian oil exports to India. In fact, Russia has consistently ranked as India's biggest oil source since last year.

In this regard, India is most likely to continue to import oil from Russia, provided it continues to be sold to India at a "competitive price", Kumar predicts.

The "distance factor" which posed as a hindrance to greater economic exchanges could be resolved once and for all in coming years, as both the governments work on new connectivity initiatives.

"There are already efforts to operationalise alternative transport routes such as Chennai-Vladivostok shipping lane as well as the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC). I expect these efforts to be intensified with Russia's greater focus on Asia," he concluded.

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Path to Multipolarity: Putin’s Landslide Win Expected to Further Erode US Hegemony

Multipolar Trend to Further Intensify With Putin's Re-Election

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