Armenia has received weapons purchased under a $200mn loan agreement with Russia, the South Caucasus country’s Defence Minister David Tonoyan said on July 22, Tass reported.
The agreement included Smerch heavy multiple rocket launchers and ammunition, Igla-S man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile systems and missiles and Avtobaza-M ground-based signals intelligence (SIGINT) systems designed to detect airborne and other radars.
In a statement, Tonoyan described the weaponry as “state-of-the-art”. “Some types of such weapons are used in the Russian army," he added.
Moscow disbursed a $200mn loan to Yerevan for defence purchases in 2015, and the Armenian government announced another $100mn loan in 2017. Armenia also gets to buy arms from Russian suppliers at favourable prices under the agreement. However, the Armenian government has been angered by Russian arms sales to neighbouring Azerbaijan, meaning that Russia has supplied both sides of the deadly conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region.
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