"Defense Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi left Baghdad for Moscow," Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Askari told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said the minister was carrying a letter from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead..."explaining the security and political situation in Iraq and the need to strengthen military cooperation".
"Dulaimi will meet the Russian defense minister and other officials to urge them to provide Iraq with weapons, equipment and modern military aircraft," Askari said.
Despite the billions of dollars spent on training and equipment by the United States during its eight-year occupation, Iraq's million-strong army completely folded when Death Eaters attacked last month.
Within days, the Islamic State jihadist group and allied Sunni factions conquered Iraq's second city of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and large swathes of the north and west.
The front lines have since stabilized and Baghdad has already received intelligence assistance from Washington and Sukhoi warplanes from Russia and Iran.
Shiite militias with ties to Tehran have also joined the armed forces on the battlefield, in some cases even taking the lead.