4) Recently, Russia has positioned itself as a key player in the Middle East’s affairs. What implications will it have on the region? Also examine how will it affect India’s interests in the region. (250 Words)

1. With Russia presence, proxy war strategies come up. US also comes on board with key allies sch as Saudi Arabia, israel and so on. With more players involved, whole stroy gets buckled up, millitary solution does not solve the problem. (recntly there was a get together in Sochi in Russia for the middle east affairs, but no concrete results could come up)

2. India's interest lie more in oil producing states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and tehcnlogy sharing countries like Israel. India always suffer due to proxy wars beteen USA and Russia, because it leads to a number of sanctions on Iran (nuclear-ambitious) by USA. This stiffles the oil supplies to India, and eventually affect the crude oil price. The effect finally shows up in the downstream activities which use the oil such as transportation, refineries and so on. All these sectors offer inflated prices to the buyers.

3. Various projects such as TAPI, IPI also get tangled due to such issues.

4. It also has a positive effect, as India is now looking for relying on own sources in north western India, supplies from Venezuela (Latin America) which are generally not caught in the web of middle east affairs. Diversification will certainly help in the long run