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EurasiaNet.org
May 25 2014
Again Testing Armenia's Loyalty, Russia Offers More Tanks To Azerbaijan
May 25, 2014 - 1:45pm, by Joshua Kucera
A T-90 tank on display on a military parade in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
(photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Russia is offering Azerbaijan another 100 tanks, on top of 100 that it
has bought over the last three years, in a move that will surely have
Armenians asking what more they need to do to prove their loyalty to
Moscow.
Speaking at Kazakhstan's KADEX defense expo in Astana, Konstantin
Biryulin, the deputy director of Russia's Federal Service for
Military-Technical Cooperation told Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that
Azerbaijan's order of 100 T-90S tanks had been completed a month ago.
And he added that Azerbaijan has an "option" to buy another 100, but
that the option hasn't yet been exercised.
News last summer that Russia completed a $1 billion arms deal with
Azerbaijan (which included those 100 tanks) prompted outrage in
Yerevan. Armenia has been a loyal ally of Russia, and so selling such
a large number of weapons to its enemy seemed like a betrayal.
But that was when Armenia was flirting with signing an Association
Agreement with the European Union. Not long after the arms deal was
announced, Armenia announced that it had changed its mind about the EU
and would instead be joining the Russia-led Customs Union. Now Armenia
is scheduled to formally join the Customs Union in June. So another
big arms sale to Azerbaijan would seem like an even bigger betrayal.
Writes RFE/RL: "Armenia's Defense Ministry on Friday refused to
comment on Moscow's apparent readiness to sell more tanks to Baku.
Biryulin's revelation is certain to spark fresh anti-Russian
statements by Armenian opposition groups and the media."
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68405
May 25 2014
Again Testing Armenia's Loyalty, Russia Offers More Tanks To Azerbaijan
May 25, 2014 - 1:45pm, by Joshua Kucera
A T-90 tank on display on a military parade in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
(photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Russia is offering Azerbaijan another 100 tanks, on top of 100 that it
has bought over the last three years, in a move that will surely have
Armenians asking what more they need to do to prove their loyalty to
Moscow.
Speaking at Kazakhstan's KADEX defense expo in Astana, Konstantin
Biryulin, the deputy director of Russia's Federal Service for
Military-Technical Cooperation told Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that
Azerbaijan's order of 100 T-90S tanks had been completed a month ago.
And he added that Azerbaijan has an "option" to buy another 100, but
that the option hasn't yet been exercised.
News last summer that Russia completed a $1 billion arms deal with
Azerbaijan (which included those 100 tanks) prompted outrage in
Yerevan. Armenia has been a loyal ally of Russia, and so selling such
a large number of weapons to its enemy seemed like a betrayal.
But that was when Armenia was flirting with signing an Association
Agreement with the European Union. Not long after the arms deal was
announced, Armenia announced that it had changed its mind about the EU
and would instead be joining the Russia-led Customs Union. Now Armenia
is scheduled to formally join the Customs Union in June. So another
big arms sale to Azerbaijan would seem like an even bigger betrayal.
Writes RFE/RL: "Armenia's Defense Ministry on Friday refused to
comment on Moscow's apparent readiness to sell more tanks to Baku.
Biryulin's revelation is certain to spark fresh anti-Russian
statements by Armenian opposition groups and the media."
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68405