India decided to buy from Russia S-400 for $ 5 billion despite the threat of US sanctions

Moscow and New Delhi came to a final agreement on the purchase of the S-400, confirmed in the Kremlin. The contract is of concern to Washington, which did not rule out the imposition of sanctions against India

The Kremlin has officially confirmed that Russia and India have agreed to sign a contract for the supply of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. According to Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov, the document will be signed during Putin’s visit to India, Interfax reports.
“A key feature of this visit will be the signing of a contract for the supply of the Triumph S-400 anti-aircraft missile system consisting of five regiments. The amount of this transaction is somewhere over $ 5 billion, ”said Ushakov.
Earlier that India made the final decision on the purchase of S-400 complexes from Russia with reference to sources reported by the Indian publication Economic Times. The newspaper's interlocutors estimated the amount of the transaction at $ 5.43 billion. India will pay in advance 15% of the contract amount, and the rest will be related to the delivery time, the Economic Times stated. The first complex should be put into operation within 24 months after the conclusion of the contract.

The fact that five regiments (ten divisions) of the C-400 are preparing for delivery to India in May were told to RBC by sources in the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, the interlocutors estimated the volume of the contract at the time of signing the memorandum of intent in May at $ 6.2 billion. However, in August, Dmitry Shugaev, director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), said that the price of the complexes for India was reduced. “India is a strategic partner for us, so we took into account our wishes,” he explained.
The export of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems causes discontent of the United States: Washington has repeatedly warned that buyers of Russian weapons may be under sanctions. The first recipient of the S-400 was China, a contract with which was signed in 2014. After China received the ordered complexes in 2018, Washington announced the imposition of sanctions against Beijing. Under the sanctions in accordance with the law of CAATSA ("On confronting the opponents of America through sanctions") were the Department of Development of Equipment of the Chinese Army of the Central Military Council and its director Li Shanfu.