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In a Russian book about Uzbek cooking I read the following phrase in a recipe for lagman:
... молотый красный жгучий перец ...
With the help of the Oxford Russian Dictionary I translated this as
ground red hot pepper.
Is this then the same as what in Indian cooking, say, is called "red chili"?
«Красный перец» (lit. red pepper) is the name for a not so hot red pepper common in Russia. However, if a pepper is unusually hot, we say «жгучий» (hot), but that only states higher capsaicin content and is not the name of the species of the pepper family. Sometimes the word «чили» (chili) is used for the same meaning, but that is not necessaryly the actual chili; just stating that is is a hotter type. Actually, it is an incorrect but common use.
So, the straightforward answer to your question will be, sometimes it is, and often it isn't.
Yes in most cases. In this case "красный жгучий перец" can be used as a description of the pepper properties and doesn't necessarily name the pepper by name (eg. habanero, jalapeno, Mexican red chili ) since there are many kinds of red hot peppers in existence.
However, if you saw an Indian dish recipe and it's calling for 'red chili' specifically, then you'd need to know that the Indian red chili is different than the Mexican red chili, and thus the context will tell you it's different.
