Russia: We'll give helicopters to Afghanistan if we can sell weapons to NATO countries
In December, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen asked Russia to provide helicopters for the anti-Taliban effort in Afghanistan. This week, Russia's NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozin said they would do so -- but with a catch: NATO countries would have to "allow" Russia to sell weapons to them:
“We are seeking an opportunity for the Russian defense industry to trade its products within the alliance's member states. We will earn money and they will acquire reliable quality weapons....
Today we are considering a possible Mistral deal with France and saying how wonderful all this is. My question is the following: Why can we buy helicopter carriers from France, but we are not allowed to sell helicopters to countries like France?"
There is nothing legal preventing Russia from selling weapons to NATO countries. I asked Paul Holtom,
director of the Arms Transfers Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), about this and he sent me a list of several Russian sales over the last decade to NATO members, mainly former Warsaw Pact countries like the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, but also Greece, Turkey and even the UK.
So what is preventing Russia from selling to NATO members? There are obviously political reasons, as well as interoperability issues. But another cause might be that even Russian officials criticize the offerings of the Russian defense industry. This is apparently what happened in the case of Greece, according to the Russia Defense Policy blog:
The Greeks have apparently called off a purchase of 420 BMP-3s for $1.5 billion (let’s call it $3.6 million per vehicle). The deal had been 2 years in the making, and it wasn’t the state of the Greek economy that caused the halt. According to NVO, the money was already in the defense budget. Rather it was [Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir] Popovkin’s specific criticism of the BMP-3 that folded the deal.
Popovkin is quoted:
“We very much need to protect our soldiers. Today everyone rides on top of the BMP because no one wants to ride in this ‘coffin.’ We need to make a different vehicle.”
Greek journalists published his remarks, and opposition politicians turned them into a scandal: how can you buy unsuitable equipment that even the country that makes it won’t buy?
A fine question.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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