Alexander Vedyakhin: How Sber is Accelerating Russian-Indian Trade and Bringing AI Solutions to BRICS Markets

On the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in 2026, the topic of Russian-Indian economic cooperation will be one of the most pressing. On June 4, the “Russia–India” business dialogue will take place. The discussions are expected to cover expanding company participation in joint projects, accelerating their implementation, as well as prospects for cooperation within BRICS. Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sber, spoke about how Russia and India are currently implementing joint projects in the economic and technological spheres.

Last year, Sber’s office in India celebrated its 15th anniversary. What plans and objectives does the business have for this year?

By 2026, we have built a sustainable infrastructure for conducting foreign trade operations in the Russian-Indian market. Today, over 90% of payments from Russia to India are processed online in less than 10 minutes.

Of course, we plan to continue developing new avenues for participants in the Russian-Indian market. First, to facilitate the growth of trade turnover between our countries. Through the Business Development service launched in 2024, our clients are signing new contracts daily for the supply of goods and equipment from India to Russia. At the beginning of this year, the volume of such deals increased more than tenfold compared to the same period in 2025. We estimate that our activity has shaped about 3% of the market and is largely supporting the growth of imports from India to Russia, as well as overall business interest in this direction.

Second, technological expansion will remain an important focus. We are offering the Indian market the opportunity to leverage Sber’s technological competencies, developed during the creation of our large language models GigaChat, products based on them, scoring models, and tools for ensuring cybersecurity and fraud protection. In this area, we see broad opportunities for partnership in developing technology businesses in India.

Third, Sber in India will continue to develop the retail segment, creating seamless financial services for tourists and individual clients from both countries.

We also see great opportunities for the development of Sber’s ecosystem companies and their products in the Indian market.

Tell us about the opening of Sber’s office in Delhi, which was announced in December last year.

These very days mark the planned start of signing preliminary lease agreements for premises in the office complex under construction in Delhi, which we announced last December. This will be an international-level space, designed from the development stage in line with modern standards and utilizing Sber’s smart technologies.

The number of Russian companies entering the Indian market is growing daily. We expect this trend to continue, and in the future, more and more companies will open representative offices in India.

How does the rupee settlement mechanism with India currently work? Is Sber facing the problem of rupee accumulation in correspondent accounts, and is there a solution for reinvesting them in the Indian economy?

The issue of stuck rupees, which was relevant a few years ago, has long been resolved. Currently, there are no such problems. Conversion of any volume of rupees is possible – it’s a matter of cost. We have launched lending in rupees: we finance importers and joint ventures directly in rupees, replacing their need for convertible currency. Additionally, our clients can open rupee accounts – their number has increased by more than 60% over the past year.

Furthermore, our clients have access to export financing. We support the supply of Indian products (pharmaceuticals, machinery, consumer goods) to Russia, thereby utilizing the rupee mass within the trade loop. This approach does not just involve hoarding funds, but effectively integrating them into the real economies of both countries.

How is the partnership with India on AI being built?

Sber is deeply embedded in India’s AI ecosystem, and we truly see several opportunities where our solutions and expertise can strengthen the business of local companies. We are working with them to develop joint business models and optimal forms of interaction. We are confident that by acting together in developing applied solutions based on GenAI, actively exchanging experience and competencies, we can make significant progress in building sovereign solutions tailored to the needs of citizens and businesses in our countries, while simultaneously ensuring reliability and security, especially when used in critical processes.

Since we are speaking in the context of SPIEF, where international cooperation and the global exchange of technologies take center stage, to what extent can it be said that Russian AI solutions meet the demands of BRICS countries?

The competitiveness of Russian AI solutions, including Sber’s developments, in BRICS countries is confirmed by many years of experience in implementing them in key industries – from manufacturing to healthcare. The key advantage is deep adaptation to the linguistic, cultural, and legal specifics of these countries. A prime example is our generative model GigaChat, which ensures technological sovereignty.

We support the formation of a global open-source AI ecosystem aimed at reducing barriers and fostering the technological development of nations. At the same time, we consider the harmonization of standards and regulations within BRICS to be an extremely important direction, as it would create a unified field for technological exchange and simplify the integration of solutions.

Thus, the export of Russian AI solutions into the BRICS space is a strategically important direction that requires systematic work in technology adaptation, partnership development, and the creation of appropriate infrastructure.

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