India signed a $5 billion deal to buy five Russian S-400 air defence systems on Friday despite a looming threat of US sanctions on countries that trade with Russia's defence and intelligence sectors. The deal was signed in New Delhi during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss nuclear energy, space exploration and trade.
India has requested that the US grant it a waiver for the deal from sanctions prescribed by the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, a US law passed in August 2017 that is intended to punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea and alleged interference in the 2016 US elections.
The US did not spare China from sanctions last month for purchasing its own Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and fighter jets. If the US does impose sanctions on India, it is unclear how India could pay Russia for the military equipment, since the law bars dollar-denominated financial transactions.
Vladimir Sotnikov, a foreign affairs expert at an independent research institute in Moscow, believes India could make the payment in a mixture of rupees and dollars to try to circumvent the sanctions.
"I do not think that India would succumb to US pressure over the purchasing of the armaments from Russia," he said. "India has a very sophisticated policy of separating the relationship between India and the US and India and the Russian Federation. And India is in a good negotiating position right now."
The National Security Council at the White House said in a statement that the Trump administration urges all "of our allies and partners to forgo transactions with Russia that would trigger sanctions" under the act, known as CAATSA.
"The administration has indicated that a focus area for the implementation of CAATSA Section 231 is new or qualitative upgrades in capability - including the S-400 air and missile defence system. Our recent action to sanction a Chinese government entity for an S-400 delivery underscores the seriousness of our resolve on this issue."