Russia has overtaken the United States to become the world’s leading conventional arms exporter for the first time, its clientele throughout the 90’s were India and China who continually imported over $1bn.
Only recently has its growing customer base been expanded to Asia (Malaysia SU-30MK1 Vietnam SU-27 Etc..), Middle East ( Yemen Mig-29, UAE surface-to-Air missile deal $4bn) and Africa (Sudan Mig-29’s , Eritrea and Ethiopia). I am a big fan of their technology and their expertise in the field of innovation because they can both match and even surpass the West in some aspects of arms manufacturing.
Other untapped markets on the horizon for Russia are Iran currently flush with oil revenues with a potential market of $2bn annually and possibly Syria & Libya, hardly democratic countries but Russia doesn’t care , all its interested in is hard currency.
Many Nato and Eu countries are now receiving Russian arms supplies and there are more and more Russian equipment competing in European tenders. Greece has purchased many items from Russia like Zubre hovercrafts and Tor-M1 medium range missiles.
What does everyone else think on Russia’s growing influence in the arms market??
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January 20, 2003 at 5:57 pm