Russia sells over $2.5bn worth of weapons in Jan-Feb

PanARMENIAN.Net - In the first two months of 2013, Russia sold over $2.5 billion worth of weapons to other countries, the head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said Friday, March 1, RIA Novosti reported.

“In the first month of this year, we sold arms worth $1 billion. In January-February, total weapon sales exceeded $2.5 billion,” Alexander Fomin told Ekho Moskvy radio.

Fomin said Russia’s portfolio of foreign orders for arms now totals some $46 billion, with “80 percent of this portfolio accounting for orders for the next three to four years.”

He also said that last year, Russia sold to other countries arms worth over $15 billion, which was 12 percent more than originally planned and $2 billion more than in 2011.

Speaking about Russia and Iraq, Fomin said the countries have not signed contracts for the delivery of armaments and military hardware to the Middle East country.

Earlier Russian and Iraqi media reported that the two countries have military contracts worth $4.2 billion.

“No deal has been struck. We will announce when there is one,” Fomin said.

The head of the military-technical cooperation service also said Russia lost hundreds of millions of dollars in fines because it suspended its deal to deliver S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran.

He added that Iran is suing Russia for $4 billion over that contract, which Russia suspended in 2010 to implement a UN Security Council resolution against the Islamic Republic, which the West, led by the United States, accuses of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program - a charge Iran denies.

“The client [Iran] is absolutely right,” Fomin said.

He said the S-300 systems designed to be sold to Iran are custom-made products whose components are chosen by the client, and that is why it is hard to sell them to other buyers.