Who is Abhay Kumar Singh, the Bihar-born Russian politician, who wants India to acquire S-500?

Abhay Kumar Singh is an Indian-origin lawmaker. While that might not sound like an anomaly, it is. He is the first desi politician to ever hold office in Russia.     

Singh, who was born in Patna, serves in the Kursk city legislature as a deputat, which is the Russian equivalent of a state legislature. Elected twice in 2017 and 2022, the doctor-turned-politician is a member of the United Russia Party. Yes, he is Putin’s man.    

Now that Vladimir Putin is in India, Singh is grabbing headlines for his views on ties between Moscow and New Delhi. But first, let’s look at the quieter but no less intriguing figure. 

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Who is Abhay Kumar Singh? 

Born in Bihar’s Patna, Abhay Kumar Singh completed his schooling at Loyola High School. He went to Russia in 1991 to study medicine and graduated from Kursk State Medical University in Russia. 

However, Russia’s brutal winter made Singh miserable. While speaking to The Week in 2023, he recalled, “I wanted to come back home. The temperatures in Kursk dip to -25 and even -30.”

That was not his only concern. The language was a “big hurdle” as well. However, a dean came to Singh’s rescue. “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. In that one month, she helped me settle in. It felt like home, and I never left,” he added.

After completing his graduation, Singh returned to Patna and started practising as a registered doctor. However, things didn’t go the way he planned. He travelled back to Russia and started and expanded his own pharmaceutical business. 

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He also ventured into the real estate sector before entering politics. Singh owns the Uralskiy Trade Centre, inaugurated by the then-Indian Ambassador to Russia, Ajai Malhotra, in 2012. It is located in the heart of Kursk city, a region bordering Ukraine. 

In 2015, he took a plunge into politics, joining Putin’s United Russia Party.  

How does Singh navigate Russian politics?   

During a 2023 conversation with The Week, when asked what made him venture into politics, Singh said, “I am from Bihar; politics is in our DNA”, but went on to say that it is “not easy”, as the rules are different. “There is a certain element of formality” in Russia as compared to India.   

In the Kursk region, which often elects white legislators, Singh stood out as a person of colour. “People have never seen anyone like me become a politician and get elected here… A woman comes up to him, looks at the badge that identifies me as a lawmaker, expresses her surprise and takes a picture,” he told the publication.   

But Singh has tried to incorporate a bit of the way things are run in India in Russia. He reportedly holds a janata darbar (people’s court) every month, which gets a good response. “I try and help everyone who comes,” he asserted. 

What does Singh say about Putin-era politics? 

Singh has been a big supporter of Putin’s model of governance, with “Indian style of electioneering while fighting the election”. 

Explaining the transformation that he witnessed from the collapse of the Soviet Union to Putin’s Russia, Singh called today’s “Russia much stronger and at par with America.” 

“As the Soviet Union collapsed, times were tough. “There were long queues to buy things,” he recalled. “You needed tickets to buy everything from televisions to food. I saw everything change in front of my eyes―it was after Vladimir Putin came in. There is nothing that you don’t get in Russia that you get in developed countries,” he told The Week. 

He strongly believes that Moscow cannot be governed by soft democracy. “If you look at it just geographically, it is so huge―you cannot govern by soft democracy. Like it was during Boris Yeltsin’s time, when Chechnya wanted to break away. Other states wanted to be independent. Russia was staggering after the collapse of the Soviet Union.” 

“When it was handed over to Vladimir Putin, the country became so strong that we became a superpower and were at par with America,” he said. 

On the war, the Kursk deputat supported the “military action” against Ukraine, saying that Kyiv had been given enough opportunity to talk, failing which the decision for war was taken. 

What did Singh say about India-Russia defence cooperation? 

Ahead of Putin’s visit, Singh spoke on a wide range of topics, especially advocating the inclusion of the S-500 in India’s arsenal. 

In conversation with India Today, Singh said, “S-400 is a very good missile system. But the S-500 is the latest technology, and it is being used in Russia only. Russia is not giving it to any other country. If Russia decides to supply it to India, India will become the first country to get it.” 

“Even China hasn’t got this system. I think India should work to get the S-500 missile system. It will be a great achievement for India. Sukhoi-57 is also very good,” he added.

Defence is one of the big topics that Modi and Putin discussed during Friday’s summit. India is eyeing not only expanding its S-400 regiments, but also the possibility of acquiring and co-producing the advanced S-500. 

On defence cooperation, Singh told news agency ANI, “The arms that have already been tested, be it planes, BrahMos, they are already tested in India. It was put to the test even in the recent Operation Sindoor. So, use the tested arms. Indian pilots are familiar with it. Russia is ready to share technology." 

Singh hinted that some big agreements, such as those in energy, labour and agriculture, can be signed between the two countries. 

“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. With President Putin’s visit, this is a good moment for India to assert itself as a global leader,” he told the news agency PTI. 

With inputs from agencies