India, Dec. 4 -- In a world splintering into rival blocs, Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi today is far more than diplomatic theatre. In an era when sanctions, tariffs and coercive alignments are redrawing the global order, the optics and outcomes of this trip will resonate well beyond the India-Russia relationship.

This is Putin's first trip to India since the Ukraine war began. For Moscow, which has endured unprecedented sanctions and isolation from the West, the visit signals something fundamental: Russia refuses to be trapped in a binary world where its only strategic anchor is China. For India, the message is equally blunt: it will not be pressured into choosing sides in a conflict that it did not create, and it...