Pranab faced Russian rebuff, was frisked at Moscow airport

Instead, sources said, the visit was one of the reasons behind pushing the UPA-Left Committee meeting on nuclear deal until after Dussehra puja on October 22.

If not being able to meet key Russian leaders was not frustrating enough, Mukherjee is said to have faced the embarrassment of having to undergo security checks at the ceremonial lounge while leaving Moscow.

Usually, visiting dignitaries are exempt from this. While the sources indicated that the External Affairs Minister was “frisked”, other officials accompanying him claimed that he had to go through routine security checks.

India is believed to have taken serious note of the matter and the Indian Embassy in Moscow has been asked to raise this with their Russian counterparts. The initial view was that, perhaps, Moscow wanted to show annoyance over delays in defence contracts. But given that Defence Minister A K Antony is now in Moscow to convey that India is willing to settle the annual price escalation row in Moscow’s favour at the rate of 5 per cent, the reasons lie elsewhere.

While South Block argues that Mukherjee’s counterpart in the Commission is Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, the fact is that India had hoped to have a meeting with Lavrov.

In fact, the MEA statement ahead of the visit mentioned that Mukherjee was expected to meet “several Russian dignitaries including Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation”. As it turned out, Lavrov was busy with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and couldn’t take out time.

With India dithering on the nuclear deal, much of the key issues dealt by the Commission like civilian nuclear cooperation and high technology trade are bound to get delayed as Russia is also finding it difficult to do commerce in sensitive items without India having obtained exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The embarrassment, however, is not lost on the MEA, which is likely to return the compliment in the same coin as they prepare for the trilateral India-Russia-China meeting of foreign ministers at Harbin, northeastern China, on October 24.