India, Dec. 8 -- If you ask an Indian whether he/she wants to go to the US/Europe or to Russia for studies, tourism, or even to settle down, the answer is not hard to guess: It won't be Russia. If you ask any Indian strategic thinker whether in the longer run the strategic partnership with Russia is more consequential than that with the US, the considered answer is likely to be "no". Even within the government, I suppose the thinking would be that Russia is an important strategic partner but not as consequential as the US (militarily) or Europeans (economically) over a longer horizon.

And yet, Indians in general have a perplexingly positive attitude towards Russia, a country they are unlikely to visit as tourists, workers, students, migr...