The Gorshkov saga should be a learning experience for India. The defence establishment will have to come out of its Cold War-era, single-source mindset, which anyway belies other big and dependable partnerships, most notably with Israel. It’s time to analyse hardware defence procurement from Russia as a whole, which supplies the same equipment to China, which uses Indian money to subsidise its decrepit shipyards, and which withheld critical technology for the T90s and is the cause of our bigger problem of spare parts. Defence is often a sellers’ market, and the Gorshkov deal was perhaps inevitable at the time. But the larger point is, defence deals mean cold and hard bargaining, not redundant emotional ties. India must watch its step as it goes shopping. The path to national security and strategic edge is one of careful and considered negotiation through available options.