Azerbaijan discloses the cost of military equipment purchased from Russia
Azerbaijan spent more than $5 billion on purchasing military equipment from Russia, said Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev following the talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“The contracts implemented between Russian and Azerbaijan, or rather, military products Azerbaijan purchased from Russia exceed $5 billion,” Aliyev said.
In addition, he noted that there is a tendency to increase purchases of military products from Russia since Azerbaijan is modernizing its Armed Forces. Aliyev called Russia “the world’s most important producer and supplier of military products to international markets”.
In the year of 2016, Russia was in the second place among exports of weapons following the US. According RBC news agency, Russia exported weapons for $ 6.34 billon. However, this amount turned out to be 8.8% less than in 2015 ($6.95 billion).
Azerbaijan continues to purchase weapons due to tension in the Karabakh conflict zone. At the end of June, based on the photos of the rehearsal of the military parade in Baku, it became known that the country received Turkish cruise missiles SOM-1, which were previously not exported.
Meanwhile, Armenia also purchases armaments, and Russia is still the main seller. Recently, Yerevan purchased Iskander-M missile systems from Russia.