The Russian reaction to the Indian nuclear tests was in keeping with the rest of the nuclear powers -- upto a point. In the P-5 and the G-8, Russia joined the western countries in demanding that India sign up the CTBT and NPT. But it drew the line on imposing sanctions.

The contrast between the reactions emanating from Washington and Moscow was sharp. The Americans breathed fire and brimstone over India's audacity in crashing into the nuclear club. Russia was more measured in its response.

It is not as if Russia did not have its concerns about the overt nuclearisation of the subcontinent. Pakistan's decision to conduct its Chagai tests soon after, have raised real fears in Moscow that this would encourage the spreadof nuclear weapons from Pakistan to other countries in the region and eventually pose a threat to Russia itself.

But whatever its anxieties over the nuclear tests, Moscow has not let that come in the way of its commitments to India. Just about a month after Pokharan II, India and Russia put the final seal on a multi-billion dollar agreement to set up two nuclear power reactors in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.

Russia's green signal to the Kudankulam deal has to be viewed in the context of the stiffening of technology denial regimes against India. Moscow's decision did not go down well in Washington. The US tried hard to persuade Russia to drop the 3.1 billion dollar deal. Washington argued that the deal would undermine global efforts to curb nuclear proliferation. The US reminded Russia of its commitments as a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The Russians countered the American argument by saying that its deal with India predated its membership to the NSG. Once India conducted its nuclear tests, theobjections to the deal were even more strident, but Russia chose to brush these aside.

Kudankulam is significant for both countries. It is a big order for the cash-starved Russian nuclear establishment. For power-deficient India, which has set an ambitious goal of generating at least 20,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020, the Russian offer was too good to refuse.

Technologically, the Russians offered the latest in advanced light water reactors. On the financial side, Moscow agreed to pick up 60 percent of the tab with an extended loan to be repaid by India in hard currency a year after the plant goes onstream, a generous offer indeed considering the long gestation period of nuclear power projects.

The question of safeguards was resolved by agreeing to place the reactors under IAEA project specific safeguards. Overriding American objections, the Russians began work on the Detailed Project Report for Kudankulam in Chennai.

Since the May tests, India and Russia have initialled a wide-ranging longtermdefence cooperation agreement, to be signed and sealed during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov to India in early December.

If in defence India's relationship with Russia is the biggest bar, none the same holds for cooperation in science and technology. Russia delivered a first cryogenic engine to India in September, when the dust from Pokharan had barely settled, providing further proof that it was not party to a technology blockade against India.

Power, coal, electronics, petroleum, steel: the list is endless. An Indian power ministry team has returned from Russia having explored possibilities of hydel power projects. In electronics and IT, the two sides have only just warmed up to the enormous potential for joint deas. There is no doubt that the Russian economy today is in shambles. But the Russians themselves have enormous staying power, and will pull through. In a multipolar world, Russia could serve as a counterbalance, however limited, to a unipolar hegemony.