Russia occupies second place in the ranking of arms exporters for the fifth year in a row.
Photo: Sergey Kiselev
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Russian Arms Still Bestsellers
A report prepared for the U.S. Congress entitled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Countries 2000-2007” states that Russia was the world’s second largest arms exporter in 2007, and the four previous years, sandwiched between traditional leader the United States and Great Britain in third place. The Russian military industrial complex earned $10.4 billion last year. The U.S. earned $24.8 billion that year, up 50 percent from 2006. That figure is not expected to continue to increase, due to the financial crisis. Great Britain sold $9.8 billion worth of weapons in 2007.
Mikhail Barabanov, editor-in-chief of Moscow Defense Brief, told Kommersant that, if all weapons supplies are considered, and not just those to developing countries, the U.S. remains in first place, Great Britain is in second place and Russia and France share the third position. Great Britain and France do a brisk arms trade with developed countries. Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Center of the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said that the volume of Russia’s arms exports has grown from $3.7 billion in 200 to $7.5 billion today. The total portfolio of orders reaches $32 billion, of which $23 billion rests with Rosoboronexport.
Vyacheslav Davidenko, head of the Rosoboronexport press service, said that competition between Russia and the U.S. is very keen on the arms market. He added that the three sanctions placed on Russian corporations by the U.S. in recent years have had no effect on trade. The biggest purchasers of Russian arms are China and India. Venezuela has joined their ranks recently as well. Since 1999, for example, China has bought 100 Su-30MK jet fighters, India has bought about 50, and Venezuela 24. Algeria and Malaysia are also notable customers. They have bought 28 and 18 of the jet fighters, respectively.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 31, 2008
|
|
|
