In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev, the President of USSR introduced economic and political reforms of ‘Perestroika’ (restructuring) and ‘Glasnost’(openness). That stopped the arms race with US, withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan, helped the unification of Germany, ended the cold war.

Other weaknesses inherent in the Soviet Union led to the disintegration of USSR and formation of 15 new countries in 1991. India recognized all of them as sovereign states and established new diplomatic relations. Ten of them joined together to form new associations with Russia called CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).

Bilateral relations:- The new leadership in Russia and other Republics of erstwhile Soviet Union hold India in high regard due to India’s secular approach to politics, its stable democratic system assuring rights and equality to all its citizens, self-reliant industrial and economic base, and its genuine concern for vital global issues, e.g. peace disarmament, economic development, human rights and democratization of international organizations particularly of the UN and its agencies.

It continues its support to India to become permanent member in UN Security Council. India and Russia both have multifaceted relationship involving strategic and high-level co-operation. The process of bilateral annual summits has given great impetus to bilateral relations. Indo-Russia co-operation has continued to move stronger on the basis mutual interest, faith, friendship and past relations.