When Vladimir Putin landed in India for his two-day visit, one of the unexpected figures drawing attention was Abhay Kumar Singh, an Indian-origin politician who calls Russia home. Singh is no ordinary public representative. He is the first Indian to ever become an elected legislator in Russia, serving as a deputat (equivalent to an MLA) in the Kursk city legislature. He represents the ruling United Russia Party, which aligns him directly with President Putin.
From Patna to Kursk
Singh was born in Patna and attended Loyola High School before leaving for Russia in 1991 to study medicine. The experience was far from smooth at first. Speaking to The Week last year, he recalled how the harsh winters in Kursk almost sent him back home. “I wanted to come back home. The temperatures in Kursk dip to minus 25 and even minus 30,” he said.
Language barriers added to his struggle, but a faculty member stepped in. “There was a dean called Elena, who took me under her wing; she was really like my mother. She told me to hang in there for a month,” Singh told the magazine. He credits her support for helping him settle down, saying, “It felt like home, and I never left.”
After completing medical studies, Singh briefly practiced as a doctor in Patna, but soon returned to Russia where he built a pharmaceutical business and later expanded into real estate. One of his ventures is the Uralskiy Trade Centre in Kursk, inaugurated in 2012 by then-Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra.
A Bihari in Russian politics
Singh joined United Russia in 2015 and was elected to the Kursk legislature twice. Asked what pushed him into public life, he told The Week, “I am from Bihar; politics is in our DNA.” He added that Russian politics requires more restraint compared to India. “There is a certain element of formality,” he said.
His presence in a predominantly white region has made him stand out. Singh said that residents often react with surprise on seeing someone of Indian origin holding office. “People have never seen anyone like me become a politician and get elected here,” he said. He described how a woman once approached him, looked at his deputat badge and then asked for a photograph.
Singh also borrows from Indian political culture. He conducts a monthly janata darbar to meet citizens, saying, “I try and help everyone who comes.”
Loyal to Putin’s Russia
Singh openly supports Putin’s governance model. He told The Week that he witnessed Russia’s transformation from post-Soviet hardship to stability. “There were long queues to buy things,” he remembered. “You needed tickets to buy everything from televisions to food.” He credits Putin with reviving the state, saying, “There is nothing that you do not get in Russia that you get in developed countries.”
He also believes the country needs strong central authority. “You cannot govern by soft democracy,” Singh said, referring to the chaos after the USSR collapsed. He claimed that Putin restored national strength, adding, “The country became so strong that we became a superpower and were at par with America.”
On the war in Ukraine, he told The Week that Russia had “given enough opportunity to talk,” and that military action began only after diplomatic options ran out.
Advocating India–Russia defence ties
Ahead of Putin’s visit, Singh urged India to seek access to Russia’s most advanced defence platforms. Speaking to India Today, he said, “S-400 is a very good missile system. But the S-500 is the latest technology.” Singh pointed out that the system has been shared with no country so far. “If Russia decides to supply it to India, India will become the first country to get it,” he said. “Even China has not got this system.”
He also backed deeper technology partnerships. Speaking to ANI, he said India should continue using Russian systems that are “already tested,” adding, “Russia is ready to share technology.”
Singh believes major agreements could emerge in areas such as labour, agriculture and energy. He told PTI that this is the right moment for India on the global stage. “The world is no longer unipolar but bi- or tri-polar. India has become a major power and should show the world what it can do,” he said.
With the Russian president in New Delhi, Singh’s unusual journey from Patna to Putin’s party has turned into a story that symbolises an unlikely bridge between the two nations.
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