- Putin insists that Russian technology is years ahead of its rivals
- Ukraine performance undermines presumption, military analysts say India, China top list of Russian arms buyers
LONDON, Aug 15 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to sell advanced weapons to allies globally and cooperate in the development of military technology, nearly six months after the Ukraine war in which the his army has performed worse than expected.
With its forces routed from Ukraine’s two largest cities and advancing slowly and at high cost in the eastern provinces, the war has so far proved an unconvincing showcase for Russia’s arms industry. Read more
But Putin, addressing an arms show outside Moscow, insisted Russian weaponry was years ahead of the competition.
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Russia cherished its strong ties with Latin America, Asia and Africa and was ready to supply its allies with a full range of weapons, from small arms to armored vehicles, artillery, fighter jets and drones, he said. “Almost all of them have been used more than once in actual combat operations.”
He said Russia’s offer included high-precision weapons and robotics. “Many of them are years, or perhaps decades, ahead of their foreign counterparts, and in terms of tactical and technical characteristics they are far superior to them.”
Russia ranks second only to the United States with arms sales of about $15 billion a year, nearly a fifth of the world’s export market. Between 2017 and 2021, 73% of these sales went to just four countries: India, China, Egypt and Algeria, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
‘ADVERTISING SHOVEL’
Western military analysts said Russia’s struggles against a much smaller adversary in Ukraine could undermine Putin’s sales pitch.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an opening ceremony of the international military-technical forum Army-2022 at the Patriot Congress and Exhibition Center in Moscow Region, Russia August 15, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
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“With economic relations with the West collapsing, Russia is even more dependent on the arms trade than before, so it’s no wonder Putin is so keen to promote them to as many non-Western clients as he can.” he said. Ruth Deyermond, Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London.
“The big problem for him is that Russia’s war against Ukraine has been a disaster for Russian military credibility: its performance has been very poor publicity for its weapons.”
When asked which Russian weapons systems had performed the worst in Ukraine, retired US General Ben Hodges cited assessments by US defense officials that Russia was suffering failure rates of up to 60% for to some of their precision guided missiles.
Western sanctions against Russia also raised questions about its ability to obtain components and provide maintenance for the weapons it sells, added Hodges, a former commander of US military forces in Europe.
“I would be very concerned as a potential buyer about the quality of the equipment and the ability of the industry in the Russian Federation to maintain it,” he said.
Ukraine has made effective use of US-supplied weaponry, particularly the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), and Russia has been dealt a number of major blows. These include explosions at an airbase on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula last week that destroyed at least eight planes on the ground, according to satellite images.
However, Putin said that Russia’s forces and their proxies in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine were fulfilling all their tasks.
“Step by step they are liberating the land of Donbas,” he said.
Russia calls the invasion that began on February 24 a “special military operation” to demilitarize its smaller neighbor and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of waging an unprovoked war to capture territory.
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Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Grant McCool
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Mark Trevelyan
Thomson Reuters
Lead writer on Russia and the CIS. He worked as a journalist on 7 continents and reported from over 40 countries, with postings in London, Wellington, Brussels, Warsaw, Moscow and Berlin. Covered the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Security correspondent from 2003 to 2008. Speaks French, Russian and German (rusty) and Polish.