‘Russia will assist India fight terror with arms’

In the last two months Mumbai has seen two presidents not just visit the city, but also reach out to the students in particular.

And just like US president Barack Obama did not have an easy time during his interaction with students at St Xavier’s College, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev also had to field some tough queries from students of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay on Wednesday.

Dressed in black trousers and a suit, Medvedev, however, maintained a confident demeanour as he answered several questions for over an hour at the institute’s convention centre.

Asking students “not to be too strict”, Medvedev said that though he is being asked not just “complicated questions” but “extremely complicated ones”, he said he will give simples answer to all of them.

The visit marks the re-establishment of IIT Bombay’s contact with Russia, which had helped set up the institute. “Memories linger and it is always pleasant when you visit an institute related to our own personal feelings and perceptions. Our relationship was established in 1958. Though it got less intensive, after my visit to IIT-Bombay now, it should be sped up,” he said.

Students made Medvedev address India’s favourite issue about “a friendly neighbouring country”. He promised his support to India if it ever had to take a hard decision.

He assured help in fighting terrorism by giving assistance considering their strategic partnership in security and defence.

“The decision of using weapons is a prerogative of India... we are ready to help and assist as we are already doing. I’m not disclosing a state secret but when I visited India four days after the Mumbai terror attacks I told them [the government] a simple thing: if India needs our assistance in terms of anti-terrorism, we are ready to help and provide weapons, modern knowledge and technology. We have to react and strike terror hotbeds and smoke them out of their dwellings,” he said.

When asked a hypothetical question that how Russia would react if 26/11-type attacks take place in Russia which is sponsored by Pakistan, Medvedev, while refusing to link any country with the attack, did not rule out use of armed force to protect the interest of the country and its citizens.

Wikileaks, which is the current flavour of the season, also found a prominent mention. As the president fielded the last question, a student asked him about Russia’s stand on the issue and if it should be encouraged or condemned.

“There are pluses and minuses to it. Not all issues discussed by diplomats should be made public so quickly because it could damage relations between countries. They will eventually be made public after 50 or 100 years,” he said.

“We don’t care what was said [on Russia] because it was only an opinion and not what is really happening. People tend to use rough words during such communication. If communications from our secret agencies were to be made public, then countries, which includes the US, would get emotional hearing such warm words,” he said.

Trudging back to the past, a student asked the president would Russia have been a superpower if the USSR had not disintegrated.

“If a state starts to feel and say that it is a superpower and not need or care about anyone else, then it is the first step to failure and is thus counterproductive,” he said. “USSR, too, had the illusion that it was self sufficient, could develop on its own, and did not need anyone and this did not work. But Russia wants to be a strong state.”