But Russia is said to have resisted these arguments despite the crammed schedule for the PM. To the extent, sources said, Russia seemed to suggest that PM must meet his Russian “counterpart”, knowing well that the PM was the head of the government and his counterpart would be Putin in Russia.

Finally, India agreed to hold a separate meeting between the two PMs in a bid to at least get it termed an “official visit”. A working visit, sources said, is a concept used by the West for visits planned suddenly without any prior invite and hence, all the ceremonial and protocol elements are kept to the minimum. This, however, is a pre-planned visit which flows from the strategic partnership between both countries.

This indifference in Russian behaviour was first felt when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not find the time to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee when the latter visited Moscow on October 11-13 in connection with a joint commission meeting.

Two weeks later, the two leaders did hold a bilateral meeting on the margins of the India-Russia-China foreign ministers’ meeting at Harbin, China. However, there was no apology from Lavrov. Instead, sources said, there was an “air of arrogance” in the exchange with the Russian Foreign Minister just mentioning that he was aware of Mukherjee’s visit to Moscow but was busy.

In fact, the External Affairs Minister even had to face the embarrassment of a security check on his way back from Moscow. This lapse in protocol was attributed to delay in papers reaching the security officials concerned. India, however, did take up the matter officially with Russia.

... contd.