I, personally have always liked Russia as our ally more than any other country. Like us, they have a great History, Heritage and a magnificent culture, which makes so much like us. hence we have always had excellent ties, since our Independence. During Cold war, Russia bet on India, whereas US bet on Pakistan. Now which country is on Top? Its India - so Russia's choice was right, and US is having nightmares in Pak. I wish our relations prosper further and become better than ever! Cheers!

Dear Vicky, That's so funny...President Obama toasted a growing U.S. friendship with India at the first state dinner of his administration. As President Obama said with glass raised toward his guest of honor, visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, "Let us answer its call. And let our two great nations realize all the triumphs and achievements that await us." I guess that you just can't trust India now. They are just friendly to Russia because they can get better prices on substandard military hardware. They also know that we have the superior military hardware, which they really want to buy. As the old saying goes - you always get what you pay for.

Hello Vicky, I agree with your assessment and I also wish that the relations between these two great countries, India and Russia, broaden, deepen and prosper, as they should. Dear C, You don't always get what you pay for. US stores, for example, are full of overpriced junk, which decent people wouldn't let into their homes and wouldn't put on their bodies. I am not even talking about things like overpriced and poorly built American houses, low quality food, that makes people fat, etc, etc. US space shuttle, another grossly overpriced thing, is being shelved due to the fact that it tends to explode with frightening regularity, killing its crew. And going forward the only way Americans, as well as anyone else on Earth, will be able to get to the International Space Station will be, to hitch a ride on the quality Russian carrier, which cost much less than the ill-designed American shuttle but does a faultless job. It is clear by now that the only way US has been able to maintain unfair advantage over other countries was because of the US dollar status as a default reserve currency. However, these days are all but gone, and once that status is taken away, US will have very little left to brag about.

The world is ending era dominated by “friendly political brokerage”. It was bringing profitable results with fragmenting small states, but had morally collapsed facing now the challenge of nuclear balance. The explicit form of this nuke-equation today does not allow any inter-mediatory into political negotiation (end of small states). What we see in this moment of India – Russia coming discussion is formatting the unique Russo-Asian continental power identity. This identity is the real harbor of human cultural-and-peaceful longevity. Hinduism - Buddhism and Islam are naturally bordering Christianity, whatever form it takes today. USA is lacking this touch of identity-communion and naturally misses the capability to noble separation demanding decent behavior. The desperate clinging-up move into Afghanistan is of not less importance than the moves of Napoleon and Hitler into Russia. The difference is that the home today has much larger nuclear-and-military dimension so the timing for advances is chosen well before springtime. Stalingrad is ahead of all of us – as the human universal question where Hiroshima morally derogated Nurnberg. Central Asia and Himalaya heights stay for nucleus of life of all of us! Not Europe or Dalai Lama any more.

Dear Larisa, You do have a few valid points.The United States does have a problem of buying cheap stuff from other countries and selling it to the American public for a high price. I do have a US military flashlight that was made in the USA and it has been working great for many years. When I had purchased an "imported" flashlight from a local store, it only worked for about 20 minutes before it broke. Speaking of food, I hope that the Russian athletes in Vancouver enjoyed the opening of the new Burger King in Moscow's Metropolis shopping mall. Maybe that’s why Russia has only won just 1 medal in the Winter Olympics and we have won 8 medals so far. I guess that's our fault too. We knew that the taste of a delicious B.K. Whopper would slow the Russian athletes down. As for our Space Shuttle missions, we had 134 Shuttle Flights, with a record of 132 successful space shuttle flights with only 2 disasters. That's a 98.5% success rate.We are just hitching a ride with Russia now, because it’s more cost-effective for both nations. I do admire the Russian Space Program and I believe this partnership in space will benefit both of our nations.Wouldn’t you agree? As for something to brag about - it is the generosity of our people. No other country offers assistance like we do. Kind of like when the United States helped Russia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. To quote former US President Bill Clinton, “Aid to the Russians" is not an act of charity," Clinton said, "it is an investment in our own future." From the United States with love, “ C "

America doesn't have friends. America has interests. Right now 1.2 billion Indian consumers for US goods are interesting but the strings attached make them look like parachutes. The US has a very impressive history, but how can you call a country compassionate when it has no problems at all spending a trillion dollars a year on a global empire while 40 million Americans can't afford private health insurance and the state can't afford 750 billion to help its own people? One of the problems of the US is that American people fear big government more than they fear big business. Perhaps when they talk about a free market economy they mean everything run by US businesses, but even the US has protections to prevent foreign ownership of US infrastructure. Some people around the world don't want businesses running hospitals, because the focus of a hospital should never be to make money. The same for the police, the army, education etc etc. A business has one focus and that is to make money. The US has one main export and that is consumerism. The US alone consumes more than most of the rest of the world combined. What happens to the planet when countries with large populations like China and India adopt such a lifestyle? Of course the US is interested in India because they realise the Chinese are not interested in democracy even though they have a large population of potential consumers. They think they can play India off against China like they played China against the Soviet Union. Problem for the US is that India doesn't want to be a customer... it wants to be a full partner. Look at the UK trying to get source code permission for the F-35. Not in US interests.