MOSCOW: Russia’s largest bank Sberbank is working to increase industrial imports and labour migration from India, First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin told Reuters ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi.
Putin begins his first trip to India in four years on Thursday, as Washington presses the South Asian nation to curb energy purchases from Russia. The Russian leader will be accompanied by executives from major firms, including Sberbank.
“We are doing our best to help our clients so that it is not only about exporting to India but also importing from India,” said Vedyakhin, adding that the bank was working with over 6,000 Indian firms that have no prior experience of trade with Russia.
Russia’s trade with India, worth about $70 billion, is far less balanced than with China, with imports lagging India’s vast energy purchases. That complicates Moscow’s push for settlements in national currencies to reduce sanctions risks.
During the Cold War, India had strong commercial ties with the Soviet Union, exporting tea, clothing, and hygiene products.
Vedyakhin said that Sberbank was now showing Russian clients that India has strong machine-building, pharmaceutical and IT sectors whose products could be bought using rupees earned from energy sales.
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“Almost all payments from Russia to Indian companies are already conducted directly in national currencies. On the whole, the potential for growth in trade turnover is still largely untapped,” Vedyakhin said.
PAYMENTS IN NATIONAL CURRENCIES
Russia and India aim to lift bilateral trade to $100 billion. Russia’s central bank said on Wednesday it had opened an office in Mumbai “to advance the interests of the Russian financial sector.”
Vedyakhin said Sberbank had sped up transactions through deferred payment mechanisms for Indian goods. The bank operates offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and runs an IT hub in Bangalore.
He added that U.S. pressure on India had not hit its business, with rupee account openings at its Indian branch up 3.5 times in 2025.
“We are in constant discussions with our Indian partners, providing them with explanations. Our payments are in national currencies, in rupees, which have nothing to do with sanctions. Payments in the rouble-rupee pair are going through,” he said.
Vedyakhin also highlighted demand for Indian workers amid record-low unemployment in Russia and a projected shortage of 3 million workers by 2030.
“This is a skilled workforce, and it is one of the areas of our cooperation. We help our companies here to bring in labour from India,” he said.
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