Severodvinsk: Russian president Dmitry Medvedev yesterday asked Russian shipbuilder Sevmash, currently engaged on the refit programme of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (ex-Adm Gorshkov), to ensure completion of the project as per the latest schedule for ''otherwise there would be grave consequences.''

''This is a matter of prestige,'' the president said at a meeting at the famed shipyard, one of Russia's oldest and renowned for the number and variety of submarines it has constructed. ''The project should be completed under the deadline that was agreed upon and under the co-ordinated parameters,'' Medvedev underlined.

''We should think of this as a first, very difficult experience,'' Medvedev said on Thursday in the northern port of Severodvinsk. ''We need to complete the carrier and deliver it to our Indian partners. Otherwise there could be grave consequences.''

Medvedev took note that the refit programme had no equal for the sophisticated design solutions it had brought into play and the amount of work involved. ''But we should complete this work,'' the president said. ''All disputes (with Indian clients) should be settled. It is necessary to agree on the remaining unsettled parameters and complete the work,'' he stressed.

Earlier, Nikolai Kalistratov, director general, Sevmash, pointed out that a careful examination of all the equipment and various components of the aircraft carrier had revealed that refitting and repairing it would be much more expensive than earlier planned.

''We had to replace all equipment, so, making the price going up dramatically,'' he said with regret. He noted, however, that the shipyard would obligatorily finalize the project. ''We have already decided and prepared everything regarding tests,'' he said, adding that the Russian side would hold the tests first. The Indian Navy would follow thereafter.

The handover to the Indian Navy is scheduled for 2012, four years behind the original 2008 schedule. The contract to refurbish the aircraft carrier was originally solemnised in 2004.

The Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk hopes to complete the modernization project and launch trial tests of the warship in 2011. The INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier is expected to have a service life of at least 30 years.

The Gorshkov affair

The most high profile of all Indo-Russian defence projects, the refit programme of the 44,570 tonne, INS Vikramaditya, is an example of all that has gone wrong with the celebrated Indo-Russian defence co-operation. Price renegotiations, protracted delays, substandard equipment have all led to a gradual, but definite, phasing out of Russia as a source of defence supplies for the Indian military establishment.

As a matter of fact, for the first time ever, Israel has now supplanted Russia as the top defence supplier to India by way of military sales in 2008-09. There can be no doubt that Israel has also supplanted the Russians in the strategic importance of the defence contracts being handled by them.

Matters have been worse confounded with Russia's couldn't-care-less attitude, which has riled New Delhi no end.

This steady deterioration in strategic relationships between Russia and India is well highlighted by the Gorshkov affair.

Very late, sometime close to 2007, Russian authorities begin to leak stories in the media that the modernization programme of the aircraft carrier was way behind schedule and that it would not be possible to complete refurbishment at terms as negotiated in 2004. A matter of great pride for the navy and the country these stories were greeted with a sense of shock within India.

The INS Vikramaditya/Adm Gorshkov carrier was not only intended to add massive punch to the navy's blue water capabilities but was also looked upon as being the poster boy for the country's fast developing strategic capabilities.

Along with the AWACS aircraft and the Sukhoi-30MKI programme, the Gorshkov was part of the triad of conventional strategic capabilities, and in terms of size, perhaps the most potent and obvious of these new strategic symbols.

After initial teething problems with its engines, the Su-30MKI programme went on stream smoothly. The AWACS programme, like the Gorshkov, due for delivery in 2008, ran into trouble.

So did some others, like the Talwar class stealth frigates. But it was the Gorshkov that gradually became the focus of all that was turning out to be wrong with the Indo-Russian defence relationship.

 First stories had the Russians claiming that the amount of new cabling required for the ship was seriously underestimated, which they claimed would be more than three times than original estimates.

Subsequent stories began to portray the refit programme itself as being a virtual new construction and that amounts of $3 billion would be required to complete the project.

In a criminal waste of time the shipyard pulled out its entire workforce from the project and redeployed them onto other projects. It was Indian money, paid as advance for the project, which had pulled the shipyard out of bankruptcy and put idle Russian workers back to work. These advances also allowed the shipyard to carry out a fair amount of modernisation of equipment.

Matters reached a stage where the Russians began to talk about appropriating the ship as part of the Russian Navy, compelling Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta to issue a stern reminder that, with the payment of advances and signing of the 2004 contract, the ship was Indian property.

The Gorshkov affair simply became symptomatic of overall Russian incompetence in teh construction and delivery of vital defence equipment. The first batch of the Talwar class stealth frigates (Krivak) were delayed by atleast thirteen months and so was another strategically vital AWACS project.

The strengthened, re-engined Russian Il-76 aircraft, being the platform for the project, was handed over inordinately late for further integration work with Israeli electronics and radars.

As relations worsened, the Russians, very stupidly, took recourse to belligerence. India, in a very determined manner began to cut out Russia out of all military contracts it possibly could, leading to windfall gains for Israeli, American and European suppliers.

The previous few years also marked a strategic shift for India from its traditional Russian orbit to a pro-Western one, leading to landmark agreements in the nuclear and defence fields, which has altered traditional geo-political equations in the region.

Medvedev's comforting noises may now be seen as part of an attempt to correct the course for Russia, but it is likely that the damage done may already be too deep for any immediate reversal.