That is because Russian Arms industry needs money more than ever and which country with a huge economy is dependent on them for arms except India ? - US ?no. Japan ? No. China? No. France? No. Germany/UK ? No. Brazil ? No.
I'm not saying it;s entirely for money..ofcourse our strategic interests do coincide with Russia..but mostly its for money.
Maybe because we ourselves have not been trusted allies to US ? Maybe because there is a trust deficit.
I'm not saying the we should become the next SK or Japan...but we can certainly engage the US more closely than now without compromising on the sovereignity.
The assertion that "Russia is dependent on Indian funding for any of her programme including development of PAK-FA and other projects" is simply not true. Since 2005, Russian funding for military R & D projects has come 100% from interbal funds, and not from funds earned through export orders.
Money is always there but that is not everything in such strategic alliance. It doesn't matter actually. We have to pay money in any case then why not pay to Russia for quality technology, Full ToT and other defence related help too ??
Will U.S. sell an Aircraft carrier, F-18 Super Hornet with full ToT, Allowing Israel to sell Arrow-3 to India ?? I don't think so. but on other side, We are buying Aircraft carrier, MKI (which is best Sukhoi fighter jets). Already operating S-300. They helping in ATV and may be ICBM too. This can't be done on basis of money alone. There is no other country which will be like Russia beside Israel, I suppose.
KSA, U.A.E., Turkey, Japan, S.K., Canada, Australia, European countries purchase 100's of Bn $ from U.S. and all of them are their allies/puppet.
Do we want to Buy F-35 without ToT which will be operated by 40 countries and will be under various clause ?? Nope. What we Buying for Russia is independent from our policy. It's friendship of equality and can be trusted for long time to come. U.S. is unreliable in that context. Not to forget, U.S. is officially with Pakistan. Also, Once we move to U.S. camp, Russia will go apart and we will be isolated above Himalayas till Siberia and CAR region too. I do agree that, We need to improve relation with U.S. and we are doing also by Buying transport/surveillance aircraft like C-130J, C-17, P-8i. But buying offensive weapons/Jets would be risky. We need to maintain very good relation with Russia and Good relation with U.S. and IMHO, we are doing the same