| While Obama destroys our oil industry and farming (dust? DUST???), Putin's on a right capitalist tear, what with missiles to Syria and nuke plants to Bangladesh. That he's also stirring up mischief only makes it more satisfying to him, one supposes. |
Russia vowed Saturday to fulfil its contract to supply Syria with cruise missiles despite the turmoil shaking the Arab world and Israel's furious condemnation of the deal.
Russia initially agreed to send a large shipment of anti-ship Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria in 2007 under the terms of a controversial deal that was only disclosed by Serdyukov in September 2010.
The revelation infuriated both Israel and the United States and there had been speculation that Russia would decide to tear up the contract amid the current turmoil plaguing north Africa and the Middle East.
The disputed sale is believed to be worth at least $300 million (218 million euros) and is meant to see Syria receive 72 cruise missiles in all.
| Who's paying? Syria doesn't have a lot of foreign exchange. |
| Right now Putin's moving hard to extend Russian influence in the vacuum that Obama has left. He'll see whether he can recoup his investment later. |
| Makes sense. The alternative is that the Mad Mullahs™ are fronting the money. |
| But wasn't the reason Iran raised prices and reduced subsidies at home because they hadn't enough money to run the country as they had been? Granted, their trade with Europe (especially Germany) and Turkey has been booming, but apparently that hasn't been enough. |
Russia has not officially confirmed making any Yakhont deliveries to date. But Interfax cited one unnamed military source as saying that Russia had already sent Syria two Bastion coastal defence systems that can include up to 36 Yakhont missiles each.
The feared complex can only operate when equipped with radar and target detection helicopters and it was not clear from Serdyukov's comments which supplies, if any, had already been received by Syria. |