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No, this is not a romantic, crazy idea. It has actually been mooted in Moscow.
The traditional Indian blessing, "may you be mother of a 100 children", can be showered on Russian brides. And eligible, enterprising Indians can multiply their earnings, and keep them within their new families in Russia.
Maria Arbatova, a Russian feminist, has proposed this radical solution to her country's falling birth rate: importing Indian bridegrooms for Russian girls.
A writer and TV moderator, Arbatova, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago "after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians", thinks Indian men make ideal husbands.
"They are crazy about their family and children," she said in presenting her new book Tasting India in Moscow last week.
"What is more, Indians, like Russians, are Indo-Europeans, and many Sanskrit and Russian words have the same roots," she said.
She may have a point here. Most Indian languages belong to what is called the Indo-German family of which Russian is a member.
For reasons I am not clear about, my hospital records after each annual check-up register me as "Caucasian".
My Russian friends are thrilled to bits when I tell them I could be their lost-and-found cousin.
Although the Indians' proven record at making babies is next to China's, the idea to import only the Indian bridegrooms to Russia is essentially to counter the other Bhai - the Chinese.
Quoted in The Hindu newspaper, Arbatova thinks Indian bridegrooms can help ward off "a Chinese demographic invasion in Russia".
She warns: "If we do not balance off the Chinese with Indians, Africans or aliens, by 2050, China will annex Russia's Siberia up to the Ural Mountains." Serious stuff!
This means that eligible Indians do not have a cakewalk and will have to face tough competition in these days of free market enterprise, to which both India (relatively) and Russia (completely) are recent converts. Fair enough.
But Indians are ahead in many large countries with small populations like Canada and Australia. This is because they work and do not live off their wives.
They are among the more prosperous communities in the West. So, Russian brides can look forward to a combination of spiritual and material happiness.
And they do have a longer tradition. Arjuna, the valiant character in Mahabharata, married comely princesses during each of his adventures in far-off lands.
Records show many Indian soldiers fighting in the two World Wars bringing home foreign brides.
Marrying girls from the erstwhile Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc was not uncommon for Indian comrades. For some, the "Bolshevik hospitality" - being received at the border and dropped back there at the end of the visit - meant returning with a bride.
Some stayed back. Brajesh Singh, an Indian nobleman and communist, married Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, her third marriage, in 1964.
When he died, she came to India to immerse his ashes in 1967. And then she simply drove into the United States embassy in New Delhi to seek political asylum. But that is a different, long-ago story.
Russia's problem is that it has a population of 142 million spread across a territory five times India's size. Its population is shrinking at over 330,000 a year.
Under a federal programme launched this year, women who give birth to a second or subsequent child are given certificates worth RM35,000, which can be used for education, mortgage or pensions.
Sept 12 has been chosen for the new holiday - nicknamed "Conception Day" - so that babies conceived that day may be born on June 12, Russia's National Day. It is truly a national endeavour. Couples who hit the target date win prizes, including refrigerators, TV sets and washing machines. The main prize is an all-terrain vehicle called Patriot.
I know a few Indo-Russian couples whose marriages have lasted. So, now, if Arbatova's proposal catches up, it would be "all in the family". It would certainly not require a lofty Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation (like the one signed in 1971) to consolidate the ties.
But some strategic thinking is certainly involved, whether or not Arbatova realises it. She may have unwittingly given ideas to all the Western and Indian analysts who believe that India should contribute to the "encircling" of China.
There are others who think that China is "encircling" India in the South Asian region. If that is the case, here is a chance for India to hit back: a billion Indians to China's south and lo! some to its north and east, too!
Pray, what will all this do to the India-Russia-China strategic co-operation about which tomes have been written and strategies are planned, not only in New Delhi, Moscow and Beijing, but to counter it, also in Washington and London?
Considering the Russian requirement, prospects for Indian bridegrooms seem limitless.
The Arbatova proposal of forging family ties could take relations between India and its oldest strategic partner Russia to dizzying heights.
Alas, there is nothing official about it. It is highly unlikely that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will discuss it with President Vladimir Putin during their annual winter get-together, this time in Moscow.
Summits are reserved for mundane things like trade and industry, defence and security, science and technology and information and culture. And maybe, nuclear deals.
Pity there will be no room for "soft" subjects.
Putin, who once said, "I am India's greatest friend", will soon be stepping down. But since there seems some meeting of minds and hearts, this proposal should gain momentum post-Putin as well, under a new president. And Putin is being asked if he will run for the presidency again in 2012.
Even if he doesn't, with Maria Arbatova as the cheerleader, many Indians would be ready to say Da to Russian brides.
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