Moscow
Many US allies have in the recent past purchased weapons from Russia, which is the second-large arms exporter in the world.
Russia has sold its weapons to 166 of the 190 UN-member countries, according to the Rosoboronexport, the only authorised exporter of Russian arms.
The principal buyers of Russian weapons are India, Vietnam, China and Bangladesh in Asia; Iran and Iraq in the Middle East; Algeria in Africa and Nicaragua in Latin America while a number of NATO countries and the US allies also have acquired Russian military products.
Currently, Russia has ties in the military and technical domain with France, Greece, Bulgaria and Slovakia, the members of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program Finlandia, US allies South Korea, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
Vietnam places orders for Russian weapons worth over $1 billion
Russian-French military and technical cooperation is based on an intergovernmental agreement, signed in 1994, which lets the two countries coordinate efforts in aviation and space industry, small armaments, armoured vehicles, artillery production and shipbuilding.
Greece is one of the biggest buyers of Russian arms. At various times, Russia supplied Greece with air-defence systems, including the S-300 systems, air-cushion landing ships, anti-tank missile systems, infantry fighting vehicles, hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, artillery installations, military transport helicopters Mi-26, as well as small arms for special forces.
Currently, the Rosoboronexport considers the modernisation of Soviet- and Russian-made equipment as “one of the promising directions” for the further development of Russian-Greek relations in the field of military-technical cooperation.
Russian cooperation with Bulgaria and Slovakia is dominated by the maintenance and modernisation of military equipment. For instance, Moscow and Sofia signed a contract for Mi-family helicopters modernisation and with Slovakia — for upgrading MiG-29 fighter jets.
The peak of Russian-Finnish military cooperation was in 1991-1996, a significant number of weapons and military equipment was then delivered, including infantry fighting vehicles BMP-2, self-propelled artillery 2S5 “Hyacinth-C”, three divisions of air defence systems “Buk-M1”. 7.62 mm Kalashnikov machine guns are basic weapons in the Finnish army.
Russia and South Korea sealed a memorandum of understanding on military and technical cooperation in December 2007. This was preceded by 10 years of cooperation when Russia had been delivering to South Korea T-80 tanks, armoured vehicles BMP-3 and Ka-32 helicopters.
Jordan was abundantly supplied with Russian weapons in the Soviet era, and the tradition continued in recent years. The two countries signed several contracts, the most significant of which is the development and production of RPG-32 “Nashshab” grenade launchers. Russia is also upgrading air defence systems, previously supplied to Jordan.
