From Sochi to a parked car: How Modi-Putin built a private channel

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi on Friday for a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a day before the BRICS Leaders’ Summit begins. Their meeting comes at a time when India-Russia ties are navigating a complicated international environment, with the Ukraine war, Russia’s growing dependence on China and India’s deepening ties with the US, all reshaping the strategic landscape.

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Yet the personal equation between Modi and Putin has remained remarkably steady. One reason may lie in something less visible than defence deals and diplomatic statements. Over the past decade, the two leaders have repeatedly carved out private, loosely structured time to talk and interact informally, and gradually turned that into a distinctive feature of their relationship.

The evening in Moscow when it began to look personal

The roots of this unstructured style of engagement can be traced to December 2015, when Modi travelled to Moscow for the annual India-Russia summit.

Putin did not wait for the formal summit to create some private time with the visiting prime minister. He met Modi at the Kremlin and then hosted him for dinner at Novo-Ogaryovo, his residence outside Moscow. The meeting was described by the Kremlin as an informal one and there were no journalists present. It was a private tête-à-tête between the two leaders. The Indian foreign ministry spokesman even used the phrase “Building Druzhba-Dosti over dinner” to describe the encounter.

The setting was significant because Novo-Ogaryovo is not simply another government building. It is Putin’s private working residence and a place where he has hosted a number of foreign leaders in more personal settings. The decision to take Modi there suggested that the Russian president was interested in creating a different atmosphere from the formal summit that was to follow.

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The evening also established an important precedent. The two leaders could discuss matters of consequence without their delegations filling the room. That did not mean that they were talking only about personal matters. On the contrary, the private conversations often dealt with strategic questions. What changed was the setting in which those questions were discussed.

Sochi made informality the format

Three years later, Putin and Modi took the idea much further. On May 21, 2018, Modi travelled to the picturesque Black Sea resort of Sochi, a popular holiday destination, for what the Indian government officially described as their first informal summit.

Unlike the annual India-Russia summit, this was not built around a long list of agreements or a formal negotiating agenda. The leaders were expected to spend several hours talking privately about international and regional issues. The proposed discussions were agendaless and without any formal, ceremonial diplomatic structure.

Modi arrived in Sochi in the morning. He and Putin held restricted talks, followed by lunch and a tête-à-tête. They then visited the Moya Russia Ethnographic Centre and the Sirius Educational Centre. They also travelled together by boat across the Black Sea from Bocharov Creek towards the Olympic Park.

The boat ride became one of the most memorable images from the meeting, but its importance went beyond the photograph. The leaders were able to continue their conversation while moving between engagements rather than treating every minute as part of a tightly choreographed summit programme. They spent around six hours together. The subjects were hardly trivial. The discussions included Afghanistan, terrorism, the Iran nuclear agreement and the broader international situation. The informal setting therefore did not mean an absence of serious diplomacy. It allowed serious diplomacy to happen without the usual ceremony.

There was another small detail that attracted attention. When Modi was leaving, Putin accompanied him to the airport. The gesture was described by Indian officials as spontaneous. The two leaders spoke again before Modi departed.

Sochi established something that would recur in the years ahead. When Modi and Putin meet, the most consequential conversation may not necessarily be the one held at the formal summit table.

The “Sochi spirit” moves to Delhi

The experiment was repeated within months. Putin arrived in New Delhi in October 2018 for the annual summit. Before the formal programme, Modi hosted him for a one-on-one dinner at his official residence. The two leaders were accompanied only by interpreters. The dinner was seen as a continuation of their Sochi interaction.

Indian officials described the relationship as something more durable than a transactional arrangement and stressed that the two leaders were thinking in terms of a long-term relationship.

That private dinner was important precisely because it happened alongside the formal machinery rather than instead of it. The annual summit still dealt with defence, trade and other government-to-government issues. The leaders simply created another channel for themselves. By this point, the distinction between India-Russia diplomacy and Modi-Putin diplomacy was becoming more apparent.

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Vladivostok brought the relationship outdoors

The pattern continued during Modi’s visit to Russia in September 2019 for the Eastern Economic Forum and the annual India-Russia summit. Putin personally accompanied Modi during his visit to the Zvezda shipbuilding complex. The two travelled together by boat to the facility, giving them another stretch of time away from the formal conference room. Modi later said he was deeply moved by the gesture.

Putin also hosted Modi for a one-on-one dinner. Russian officials described such private conversations as an opportunity for the leaders to discuss international and regional problems frankly and confidentially.

Again, there was nothing particularly unusual about two leaders having dinner. What was unusual was how frequently Modi and Putin were finding opportunities to remove themselves from the formal summit environment. The relationship was developing its own choreography -- a private conversation, some time travelling together, a meal, perhaps an excursion, followed by the official meeting.

Then came Ukraine, and the private channel acquired another value. The Ukraine war presented the relationship with its biggest political test. India did not join the Western campaign to isolate Russia, but Modi also did not endorse Putin’s war. In September 2022, at the SCO summit in Samarkand, Modi told Putin publicly that “today's era is not of war”. The remark was widely understood as a direct message to the Russian president. Yet it did not lead to a rupture in their relationship. This is where the years of private interaction become important.

The two leaders also maintained direct contact by telephone. During the early months of the war, Modi spoke to Putin about the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine and urged him to engage directly with the Ukrainian leadership. The relationship was therefore not based on the absence of disagreement. It was becoming resilient enough to accommodate disagreement.

Novo-Ogaryovo, 2024: Putin takes Modi around his home

When Modi returned to Russia in July 2024, Putin revived the private-residence format. Before the formal summit at the Kremlin, he received Modi at Novo-Ogaryovo. Putin welcomed Modi as a “dear friend” and hosted him with tea, berries and sweets. The two travelled around the estate in a motorised cart, visited the stables and watched a horse performance. Only after this informal evening did the official programme move to the Kremlin the next day.

The details are revealing because none of them was necessary for the conduct of the bilateral relationship. Putin could have received Modi directly at the Kremlin. The two governments could have held their scheduled talks and moved on. Instead, Putin spent the evening showing Modi around his residence.

There was substantive diplomacy mixed into the informality. The two discussed the war in Ukraine, economic issues and the problem of Indian citizens who had ended up serving with Russian forces. But the conversations took place in an environment that was markedly different from an official summit.

It was the 2015 dinner at Novo-Ogaryovo in a more developed form. Putin had again brought Modi into his private space, but this time the visit was visibly relaxed enough to include a tour of the estate and its stables.

Tianjin: When the schedule itself had to wait

The most revealing episode came in Tianjin in September 2025. Modi and Putin were attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China. Putin invited Modi to travel with him in his famous Aurus limousine to the venue of their bilateral meeting. The car ride itself became a story because the two leaders did not stop talking when they reached their destination.

They remained inside the parked car for roughly another 45 minutes, continuing their private conversation while the formal programme waited. The ride was part of a broader display of the warmth between the two leaders. Putin simply invited Modi into his car, the two began talking and the conversation continued after they had reached the destination.

Tianjin was a new stage in the evolution of the relationship. At Sochi, the leaders had deliberately created an informal environment, but at Tianjin, the informality appeared to have become instinctive. The car had effectively become another private room.

The Tianjin episode is easy to reduce to a charming diplomatic photograph of Putin and Modi sitting together in a Russian limousine. The more interesting detail is what happened after the photograph should have served its purpose. They had arrived, and their officials were waiting eagerly for a formal bilateral meeting which was scheduled. Yet they remained inside the car because they were still talking.

The substance of the conversation was also important. Putin later disclosed that he had briefed Modi about his discussions with US President Donald Trump. The two were therefore using the private setting to exchange information about major geopolitical developments rather than simply making a show of personal warmth.

Delhi, 2025: The private dinner comes home

When Putin visited India in December 2025, the pattern was repeated on Indian soil. Modi personally received him and the two travelled together in a car before Modi hosted Putin for a private dinner. Putin's visit was focused on strengthening the energy and defence relationship, but the personal reception and private dinner underlined the warmth and informality that had become a familiar part of their meetings.

The dinner also had a certain symmetry with the 2024 Novo-Ogaryovo meeting. Putin had entertained Modi at his private residence in Moscow, and now Modi entertained Putin in Delhi. By then, private hospitality had become almost an established second track of the bilateral relationship.

No ordinary diplomacy, this

Many world leaders have private dinners, but it is the frequency and variety of the settings in which Modi and Putin choose to talk privately.

There has been the late dinner at Putin's residence in Moscow in 2015, the six-hour informal summit in Sochi in 2018, the private dinner in Delhi later that year, the boat journey and dinner in Vladivostok in 2019, the informal evening at Novo-Ogaryovo in 2024 and the extended conversation inside Putin's car in Tianjin in 2025.

The settings kept changing, but the underlying idea was to move away from the formal table and have enough uninterrupted time to talk. This has great practical diplomatic value. Formal negotiations tend to produce positions while private conversations can reveal priorities. A government delegation may defend a carefully prepared brief, while a leader can explain what he actually considers negotiable and what he does not.

This is particularly useful for India and Russia because their interests overlap substantially but not completely. India wants Russian defence technology and energy while diversifying its strategic partnerships. Russia wants India to remain a major partner while its own relationship with China becomes increasingly important. India wants the Ukraine war to end but does not want to participate in Western efforts to isolate Moscow. These are not problems that can always be solved by signing another agreement. They require leaders who can explain their positions to each other without turning every disagreement into a matter of formal negotiation.

This unstructured, free-flowing and informal private channel that Modi and Putin manage to carve out of diplomatic schedules is one of the reasons why India-Russia ties have remained resilient in a chaotic world.