War games cancelled as Russia delivers calculated snub to India

New Delhi: In a calculated snub delivered to India, Russia cancelled two bilateral military war games – one of these just after Indian naval ships had already reached the designated location of the exercise, the Russian port and naval base of Vladivostok.

While the scheduled army war games, held under the 'Indra' banner, have been called off, the incident at Vladivostok is an indicator of the extent to which Indo-Russian relations have deteriorated under the current UPA regime at Delhi.

In the Vladivostok incident Russia called off exercises with the Indian Navy, despite the latter's warships -- including guided missile destroyers INS Delhi, INS Ranvir and INS Ranvijay -- reaching Vladivostok, an important naval base on the Pacific Ocean.

Russians cited non-availability of warships due to their expected deployment in aid of Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, as the reason for calling off the war games, official said, but soon sailed out for an exercise of their own even as the Indian squadron watched.

As a face saver exercise, a table-top simulation of a war game was hastily conducted, officials said.

Hard on the heels of the naval war games being called off Russia has now cancelled an army exercise under the Indra series that was to be held in Russia in June.