In Kazan, where the Volga meets the Kama south of the city, two teams met on the field for a T20 outing on a sunny morning this week. Vinay Kumar, India’s envoy to Moscow, was there to greet Team Russia and Team India, their playing 11s largely students, watched by most with little or no knowledge of cricket.

It was soft diplomacy at play, India returning to the city where, a year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met on the boundaries of the BRICS summit, leading their sides to revive ties frozen due to the military standoff on the icy plains of Ladakh.

Now, “in a matter of weeks, not months”, as Kumar put it, India will open a consulate in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s east European Republic of Tatarstan whose growth and wealth have been fuelled by its oil a

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