Russia Continues to Play Leading Role in International Arms Trade
21:15 03.11.2015
Russia remains the second largest arms exporter in the world that constantly manages to discover new markets, Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft wrote.
Russian weapons are still very competitive worldwide, the newspaper stated.
Its total amount of international arms contracts reaches about 70 billion dollars, which is 13.4% more compared to the previous year. The largest arms exporter in the world is the United States, Russia ranks second, followed by China.
According to the newspaper, Russia has been consistently surprising its competitors with an increase in its arms exports. Ten years ago, experts argued that Russia's military-industrial complex was based on old stocks with only a few analysts who believed in its innovative capabilities.
Some analysts expected that emerging economies would give up Russian supplies because they either will produce weapons by themselves, or because they will be able to afford more expensive Western analogues.
However, over the last ten years, Russia has been able to almost triple its arms exports. Among its major customers are India, Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Peru, Uganda, Venezuela and Vietnam.
Russia consistently manages to discover new markets and replace the old ones. Russian armaments remain attractive for a large number of countries partly because they are cheaper than their Western analogues.
Moreover, Russia is viewed by many countries as an attractive supplier because its arms deliveries remain persistent regardless of certain political conditions.
According to the newspaper, a reduction of arms exports would be painful for Russia. However, so far there are no indications that Russia could lose its place in the global arms market for a long time, the newspaper wrote.
© Sputnik
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