Russia is second arms exporter after US

[man]

Russia’s Weaponry Exporter Reports $34Bln in Orders

 

http://en.rian.ru/mi...-in-Orders.html

 

MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s state arms exporter said Wednesday that its order portfolio stood at $34 billion as of June 1.

Rosoboronexport delivered $6.5 billion worth of weaponry to foreign customers in the first half of this year, deputy head Igor Sevastyanov announced, adding that the current order portfolio included contracts with 67 countries.

 

Russia, which last year sold $15.2 billion worth of weaponry, is the world’s No. 2 arms exporter, behind the United States.

Sevastyanov added that his company was in talks regarding contracts worth a total of more than $80 billion. But it was not immediately clear in what time frame those contracts could be concluded.

 

Russia’s main arms customers are India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria. Vietnam also emerged as a significant purchaser in 2010, when it signed a deal to buy submarines, aircraft and other military hardware.

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Arthur Aghabekyan: “Russia has sold Azerbaijan such equipment which is designed to destroy the peaceful population.”

 

Aravot.am inquired from the Deputy Prime Minister of NK Arthur Aghabekyan, who participated in Artsakh liberation war and occupied the position of Deputy Minister of Defense of RA MD whether Russia selling weapons to Azerbaijan does not violate the balance of military powers between the two countries. Mr. Aghabekyan was not so much concerned about the violation of the balance as he was concerned that our strategic ally Russia is selling such equipment to Azerbaijan that are designed to destroy the peaceful population.

 

“In fact, military operations began when the imbalance of powers occur. The acquisition of weapons by Azerbaijan, each and every time, was followed by the review of planning the defense by us, and the review is not only rearrangement of the divisions and military units, but also for acquisition of weapons. And he Republic of Armenia has done its best to avoid the imbalance in the arena of military actions of defense-attack. I should frankly admit that the military equipment that were recently acquired by Azerbaijan, tanks, anti-aircraft defense weapons of mass destruction, at this time I’m talking as a military or political figure, cannot have a very sharp and big impact on our imbalance of powers, it means that we have a problem in reviewing the defense planning, whether in terms of military units, military types, or in terms of new armature, but the most important thing is what goal Azerbaijan pursues by acquiring such weapons of mass destruction.”,- said Mr. Aghabekyan in a conversation with us. According to him, “Some types of these weapons are designed for the rapid success, as said in Russian: «......» weapons.

 

Azerbaijan acquires weapons, which are designed for the destruction of peaceful population, and any weapon applied towards the peaceful population causes panic. And our frontline militants, armed forces divisions, know that their parents and relatives are at the rear. Right here we have problems to think, our politicians, our friendly countries, politicians of our friendly countries should raise their voices that Russia has sold such equipment to Azerbaijan that are designed to destroy the peaceful population. I am sure that there will be politicians in the Republic of Armenia and in Artsakh who will give true assessment to this deal. In this regard, I consider an unfortunate event in our lives that our strategic neighbor is selling our opponent weapons to destroy peaceful population.” Lusine BUDAGHYAN

 

Read more at: http://en.aravot.am/2013/07/01/155144/

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While Hayk Ghazaryan wrote in July 2, 2013 in karabakh-open.info

According to the Russian Vedomosti, Russia supplied to Azerbaijan armaments costing 1 billion USD, including three battalions of T-90 tanks, three battalions of armored vehicles, one division of Msta-S self-propelled howitzer, one division of Smerch BM -30 rocket systems, one division of Vena self-propelled howitzer and one unit Solntsepyok heavy flame thrower system.

 

Interview with first commander of NKR self-defense Arkady Karapetyan Mr. Karapetyan what is Russia's goal? I don't believe that by selling weapons Russia is trying to maintain the balance in Transcaucasia, on the contrary, it is boosting tension. It rather balances the Russian military base which does not belong to Armenia. I'm mostly worried about the sale of Smerch rocket systems. If 1600 people died as a result of a Grad volley in Tskhinvali, can you imagine what will happen if Smerch is used against Stepanakert? Thousands of people will die, if not the whole population.

 

Russia is selling weapons to Armenia at internal Russian prices, while to Azerbaijan at international prices. The weapons sold to Armenia at internal prices are the old generation weapons, such a T-72 tanks. Why aren't they selling Smerch rockets, airplanes and other types of weapons to us in order to keep the balance?

 

Recently Iskander ballistic missiles have been imported to Armenia. This is said to be the proof of commitment to parity. These missiles have been provided to the Russian base. If they gave them to us and trained local staff, that would be different. Second, for example, Iskanders will be launched at headquarters which may have been already dislocated during the war, while Smerch is a direct threat to the population. One volley of this missile will destroy 67 hectares. One division is composed of 18 stations, Azerbaijan has two divisions today. If Azerbaijan does not buy weapons from Russia, it will buy from other countries, such as Israel. Let it buy but we would at least know that it is not buying from our friendly country. Plus, only Russia produces Smerch in the world, which is a weapon of mass destruction. According to a Russian political scientist, Russia is acting in the same way as NATO and the U.S. which sell weapons to Egypt and Israel, Greece and Turkey in order to maintain the balance. Israel has nuclear weapon. Do NATO and the U.S. sell nuclear weapons to any other country in the region? Smerch is equal to a nuclear weapon in our region. The CTSO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said about Russia supply to Azerbaijan that it is business, market relations and Russia's economy.

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RUSSIA TRYING TO RESTORE PRESENCE IN SOUTH CAUCASUS "AT LEAST PARTIALLY"

Regnum news agency, Russia

June 29 2013

by Gay Borisov

 

Moscow has recently increased its military and political activeness in the South Caucasus. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay

Patrushev and ODKB [Collective Security Treaty Organization] Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha visited Armenia literally within several

days. An agreement on developing Russian-Armenian military and technical cooperation was signed as a result. They also discussed the

issues of reinforcing the 102nd Russian [military] base in Armenia and intensifying joint military exercises, strengthening the Armenian Air

Forces and antiaircraft defence, modernizing border guard detachments of the FSB [Federal Security Service] of the Russian Federation,

and defending the Turkish and Iranian sectors of the Armenian border together with their Armenian colleagues. It was also decided to create

a joint structure - ArmRosgosservis [Armenian-Russian state service], which is of regional importance due to its size.

 

Parallel to it, Russia started delivering weapons and hardware to Azerbaijan. The deal is worth 750m-1bn dollars. This sum of money

would be sufficient to fully arm and equip an army division from scratch. Certainly, the fact aroused questions among Armenian experts.

 

However, the Russian side hinted that Yerevan had been informed about the sale of weapons to Baku. It was also said that the "business

project", which, according to the expert of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), PhD in Military Science Vladimir Zakharov,

is aimed to restore parity of forces in the region, which changed to Armenia's advantage after it became known that Iskander-M guided

missile systems had been located on its territory (it should be noted though that so far, there has been no official confirmation of the

information).

 

However, the true aim of the deal with Azerbaijan is that by delivering weapons and military hardware, Russia is trying in some measure

to maintain its military and political presence in the country, which started to come to naught after Russian specialists left the

Qabala Radar Station. Meanwhile, in view of short-term prospects of developments in the region, further weakening of Russia's positions

is rather gravid. The thing is that in a year, the Americans and their allies will start withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan.

Edited July 3, 2013 by man