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Algeria Picks Out Weapons in Russia
Russia’s tour of Algerian ANP Chief of Staff Major General Salah Ahmed Gaid is nearing its end today. The main highlight of the visit is forthcoming large scale purchase of weapons in Russia.
Major General Salah Ahmed Gaid arrived in Moscow Sunday. In Russia’s capital he met Chief of the RF General Staff Army General Yury Baluevsky, Rosoboronexport General Director Sergey Chemezov, Director of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Mikhail Dmitriev. Gaid visited Zhukovsky airport Tuesday to see SU-30MKI and Su-35 fighters flying. He held negotiations at MiG Corporation Wednesday and was in St. Petersburg Thursday, where he went to the Severnaya Verf shipbuilder.
The mere order of business of the tour leaves no doubts that military and technical cooperation with Russia was its prime target.
A source with the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation told Kommersant the visit of Algerian chief of staff showed that some negotiations will start from the scratch. In particular, Algerian military officials have reevaluated requirements for the aircraft inventory and may acquire one or to squadrons of Su-30MKIs or Su-34s (estimating cost stands between $0.8 billion and $1 billion) and three or four squadrons of lighter and less expensive MiG-29SMTs (from $1 billion to 1.2 billion). For the first time in history, Russia has offered to a foreign client to get back old planes in settlement for the new ones. Russia suggested taking 36 old MiG-29s, which were delivered to Algeria in 1999, in exchange for the new MiG-29SMT, in a move to raise attractiveness of the offer against France, which promotes Mirage-2000-5 in Algeria.
The source said Algeria will seal a long-agreed contract for 300 T-90S tanks within the following two or three months.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 27, 2005
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