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Russia won't stop weapon sales to Syria and Mali



MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday it was delivering military hardware and light weapons to the governments of Syria and Mali as it expands sales and maintains its footing in some of the world's deadliest conflicts.

Anatoly Isaikin, the director of state arms trader Rosoboronexport, said that Russia sees no need to stop arms trade with Syria as it isn't prohibited by the United Nations.

He dismissed Western criticism of Russian arms sales to Assad's regime, saying that his company has only delivered defensive weapons.

"In the absence of sanctions, we are continuing to fulfill our contract obligations," Isaikin said at a news conference. "These aren't offensive weapons. We are mostly shipping air defence systems and repair equipment intended for various branches of the military."

He also rejected reports that Russia was planning to supply advanced MiG29-M fighters to Damascus while confirming it had a deal outstanding for Yak-130 light attack jets.

Isaikin said Syria currently ranked "13th or 14th in terms of volume" on the list of nations receiving Russian arms supplies.

Alexei Pushkov, the Kremlin-connected head of foreign affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, said on Wednesday that Assad's downfall would create a "second Afghanistan" and reaffirmed that Russia would continue to reject the calls for the Syrian ruler's resignation as a precondition for peace talks.

Russia has been repeatedly condemned by Western and Arab nations for keeping ties to the Syrian government despite violence that UN estimates show has claimed more than 70,000 lives.

Its shipment this year of repaired attack helicopters to the regime was disclosed by the media and drew a furious response from former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Isaikin put the value of exports last year at $12.9 billion (9.57 billion euros) with the largest orders going to southern Asian nations.

But he added that Russia was also building arms links with strife-torn Mali and other countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

The Russian media said weapons systems which his company has delivered to Syria or is planning to ship in the future included Pantsyr-S1 and Buk-M2 air defence systems and Bastion anti-ship missile system.

The latter is armed with supersonic Yakhont cruise missiles that have a range of up to 300 kilometres (162 nautical miles) and provides a strong deterrent against an attack from the sea.

Isaikin said Russia had signed contracts worth a record $16.5 billion in 2012 and now had firm orders worth another $37 billion.

But he brought no real clarity to the status of an historic $4.2 billion contract that Moscow signed with Baghdad but which Iraq said in November it had cancelled out of corruption concerns.

The deal would make Russia the largest arms supplier to Iraq after the United States.

Officials in Moscow have insisted that the deal will still go through after more rounds of negotiations.

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