Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was earlier scheduled to visit India in late 2020, may visit the country during the first six months of next year, Russia's ambassador to India, Nikolay Kudashev said on Monday.

"It became more difficult to maintain contacts due to the pandemic. It has affected the frequency of face-to-face meetings, but the Russian-Indian political and economic dialogue has not become less intense. Summits are the highest point of the dialogue. The summit was due to be held in October. There have been large-scale preparations, but it has been decided by mutual agreement to postpone the meeting until the next year. When will the meeting take place? The sooner the better. I hope we will receive the Russian president in India in the first half of the coming year," Sputnik quoted Mr Kudashev as saying.