SCO Summit: Did Putin steal PM Modi’s thunder by scapegoating the West for the Ukraine war?

Even as mainstream news outlets in India make a bigger song and dance over prime minister Narendra Modi’s encounter with Russian president Vladimir Putin, with India’s reported ‘insistence’ that Russia end the war on Ukraine, there is less attention to Putin’s own scapegoating of Europe for the war.

At the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, the Russian president said the ongoing efforts by Western nations to draw Kiev into NATO are a major reason behind the Ukrainian conflict.

Putin argued that the roots of the crisis can be traced back to the “coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014, which was provoked by the West”, according to Russian news agency Tass.

He added, "The second reason for the crisis is the West's constant attempts to draw Ukraine into NATO. As we have repeatedly emphasised, this poses a direct threat to Russia's security."

In February 2014, violent confrontations between demonstrators and security forces in Kyiv led to the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Putin said, “as a result of the coup in 2014, the political leadership of the country that did not support Ukraine's accession to NATO was removed".

Putin arrived in Tianjin on 31 August, Sunday, to participate in the SCO summit, a bloc that is now comprised of 10 members. He was present at the opening banquet hosted by Chinese president Xi Jinping later in the day as well.

His rare participation in the international summit has shifted global attention to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine again, including the stalled ceasefire efforts led by US president Donald Trump — and mounting pressure on India by way of US tariffs over its purchase of Russian oil.

Notably, India has held that it is far from being the biggest purchaser of Russian crude oil — and at the moment, exports from Russia are suspended, thanks to the rationing due to Ukraine’s attacks on its refineries.

India, for its part, has gone in looking to find more support for its ongoing diplomatic tussle with Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attacks and Operation Sindoor.

After a multi-nation diplomatic outreach by India across internal political lines still saw the US, for one, ostensibly swaying towards Pakistan and China too seemingly happy to ally with Pakistan, Prime Minister Modi asked the gathering in Tianjin, "It is natural to ask — can the open support for terrorism by certain countries ever be acceptable to us?"

"We must state it clearly and in one voice: double standards on terrorism are unacceptable. Together, we must oppose terrorism in every form and manifestation. This is our responsibility towards humanity," he argued.

Calling the Pahalgam attack "not only an assault on the conscience of India, but also an open challenge to every nation, and every individual who believes in humanity", Modi expressed his "deep gratitude" to all the friendly nations that stood by India during its moment of grief.

He was later seen driving away in the same car as President Putin.

While India claims Russia as an ally, there are of course those — and not just in the West — that would label Russia’s 3-year war on Ukraine a form of cross-border terrorism too.

The SCO was founded on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, with Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as its original members. India and Pakistan joined in 2017, Iran joined in 2023, and Belarus joined the grouping in 2024.

With PTI inputs