 Libyan Defence Minister Yunis Jaber had gone on a major spending spree during a January 2010 visit to Moscow, signing 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion) worth of deals including for six Yak-130 military planes. |
Moscow (AFP) Feb 27, 2011 Russia could lose almost $4.0 billion in arms export contracts to Libya after Moscow joined other world powers in slapping an arms embargo on Moamer Kadhafi's regime, a report said on Sunday. The Interfax news agency quoted a military source as saying that Russia had a swelling order book for contracts from Libya worth $2.0 billion while negotiations had been in progress for deals worth $1.8 billion more.
"Among the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, Libya is one of the main buyers of Russian weapons," the source, which was not identified, told the agency.
"As of today, contracts for military hardware of around $2.0 billion had been agreed with Libya.
"Work on contracts for aviation equipment and air defence was also in the final stage. These were valued at $1.8 billion," the source said.
Russia was initially slow to echo Western condemnation of Kadhafi amid his bloody crackdown on an uprising but on Saturday it joined other UN Security Council members in ordering an arms embargo against Libya and other sanctions.
Another report last week said Russia could lose a total of up to $10 billion in arms sales from the wave of unrest currently destabilising regimes in north Africa and the Middle East.
Without confirming the figures, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov confirmed Moscow was deeply troubled by the potential impact of the Arab revolts on its weapons exports.
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