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How is it that the world's largest democracy is aiding the invasion of another struggling democracy by a dictatorship?
Reading between the lines here, this seems like a licencing deal more than anything else.
These are Indian AKs (initially with some Russian parts), built in India for the Indian army...
Russia is still profiting, but at least the arms aren't going to Russia itself... at least on paper... >

This has been in the works since 2019. It's not a new thing. And it was concluded before the war began.  
As much as I hate this deal - since it reeks of corruption (they railroaded all attempts at indigenization and still bought some 150k SIGs anyway which is a different round - which means two sets of optics and other accessories) it's not much of a military cooperation. >

The building of the plant actually began in 2007, they just didn't get it done until 2019...
So, the whole deal predates even the annexation of Crimea, let alone anything else.
It's not a good look for India recently given everything else as well, but this thing didn't exactly fall out of the clear sky indeed. >

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 75%. (I'm a bot)


In particular, the Indian-russian joint venture "Indo-Russian Rifles Private Ltd." has completed the production of its first batch of AK-203 automatic rifles, Janes reports.
The first 70,000 rifles should have up to 70% of Indian components, and the figure must grow up to 100% afterwards.
On a side note, we should remark that the building of the plant for making russian rifles began back in 2007, but due to some problems, it opened with a delay in 2019.


Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: rifle^#1 russian^#2 production^#3 Indo-Russian^#4 Private^#5 >

I’m not supporting India but keep in mind their allegiance to Russia may be because Russia (and Soviet) always had their backs. When the US and UK tried to help Pakistan expand their borders, Russia did send an entire naval fleet w/ a nuclear sub to scare them off. >

Why is it always you, India? >

Because the US/UK supported Pakistan, while the USSR backed up in India. >

Can be no doubt who's side India is on >

Its more of a licensing deal, its fully made in India for Indian army based on the articles when you search google for that info. Russia making vey little if any money off this >

Not true. Wiki states that Russian special forces also use them. >

They use them, but the ones made in India are used by the Indian army. It's more a licensing deal to get domestic modern gun production. They may gain some profit from the deal but no delivery of weapons AFAIK. /shrug >

And who's to say the profit can't be in the form of said guns? Even at a percentage.  Russia is dumb in a lot of ways, but giving a gun patent to another country to produce, and recieve no guns even for q&a seems like a no go at any rate. >

Thats the reason why in last 60-years India has been buying all military stuff from Russia due to what India aggressively fights for is TOT: Transfer of Technology. If you research all their foreign military deals of any kind, it always includes some kind of TOT, except for when buying from USA because USA does not give that access or info to any country except maybe very few like UK or Australia. France and Israel are other partners that provide TOT to India as well.