MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) — Russia delivered up to $1 billion worth of military equipment to Azerbaijan including tanks, artillery systems and infantry fighting vehicles.
The shipments are the result of contracts signed in 2011 and 2012, said unnamed Russian Defense Ministry sources, also citing photographs posted on milkavkaz.net, a website analyzing the military situation in the Southern Caucasus, to prove the deliveries were underway.
The military hardware being supplied to Baku is worth between $700 million and $1 billion and includes 94 T-90S tanks, about 100 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, 18 Msta-S howitzers, 18 Smerch rocket launchers, 18 Vena “floating mortars” and six TOS-1A Solntsepek multiple launch rocket systems.
A spokesman for Rosoboronexport, the state-controlled arms trader, declined to comment on the report.
Large-scale Russian military support for Azerbaijan is likely to provoke unease in neighboring Armenia, which traditionally has enjoyed a close relationship with Moscow.
