Russia is currently delivering up to $1 billion worth of military equipment to Azerbaijan including tanks, artillery systems and infantry fighting vehicles, RIA Novosti reports quoting Vedomosti newspaper.
The shipments are the result of contracts signed in 2011 and 2012, unnamed Russian Defense Ministry sources told the business daily, which also cited 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, according to Vedomosti.
Reached by phone, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, the state-controlled arms trader, declined to comment on the report.
Some of the delivered hardware may be displayed at a military parade in the capital Baku on June 26, a day dedicated to the armed forces, the report said.
Russian arms trader Rosoboronexport has declined to comment, while none of Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry’s officials were available for a comment.
It is not the first major purchase of Russian arms made by the oil rich country. In 2010-2011 Russia sold Azerbaijan surface-to-air missiles and military helicopters worth almost $3 billion, the report said.
