Abstract: The subject of the study is the intensification of cooperation between Russia and India in the field of science, technology and innovation in the context of responding to anti-Russian sanctions against Russian science. The purpose of the article is to identify the initiative directions of scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries in modern conditions, which will effectively implement the provisions that form a systemic legal framework for bilateral cooperation. The article shows that Russia is the initiator of the intensification of cooperation, intending to compensate for the damage caused by the loss of institutional ties with some of the main partner states in the scientific field. The authors elaborate on the characteristics of the mechanism of legal regulation of Russian-Indian scientific and technological cooperation both from the point of view of its historical formation and through the prism of its compliance with the modern needs of intensifying bilateral cooperation. In the process of achieving the research goal and solving the tasks set, the authors used the following methods and approaches: historical and legal method, forecasting method, formal dogmatic method, systematic approach, modeling method. The authors of the article came to the conclusion that the operation of the developed international legal mechanism for regulating the ISTC of the two countries has become the basis for the successes achieved in long-term cooperation. This mechanism combines the implementation of the provisions of intergovernmental bilateral agreements (vertical level), as well as the provisions of agreements concluded between Russian and Indian institutions of the scientific and educational sphere (horizontal level). The directions of cooperation and the prospects for its regulation are set by political and legal documents of a strategic nature (declarations, statements, memoranda). All this is complemented by the use of a programmatic method that creates conditions for the implementation of relevant international legal obligations. The organizational mechanism is represented by intergovernmental structures. At the same time, currently this cooperation is not so significant in its scope, and the provisions of political and legal documents sometimes have the character of declarative intentions, which are not yet embodied in a wide range of specific scientific projects. The novelty of the article lies in understanding the prospects of the Russian-Indian ISTC through the prism of solving the problem of enhancing Russia's participation in cooperation in geographical areas not complicated by sanctions.