The president Medvedev signed the decree "About Measures for Fulfillment of Resolution 1970 of UN Security Council of February, 26, 2011" connected with restrictions in relation to Libya, press-service of the Kremlin informed. The decree prohibits deliveries of all types of arms including weapon, armament and military technique, rendering Libya services connected with military activity from Russia to Libya.
- It's great to be human but such decree causes serious damage to all military-technical cooperation of RF with foreign countries, - editor-in-chief of FORUM.msk Anatoly Baranov considers. - Problems with after-sale maintenance were serious obstacle for introduction of our military equipment to former Soviet markets for long. Our equipment is quite profitable in correlation price-quality, the buyer is being held only by the problem of maintenance and modernization - solving of this question also took a lot of time, though for today it's almost settled. It led, by the way, also to the growth of sales of the Russian equipment last years. Now Russia actually refuses from maintenance of equipment delivered earlier. Why? Degree of modernization of the Libyan planes and tanks of the Russian origin doesn't matter in the current war of Kaddafi with rebels, while it does matters for further relations and not only with Libya. One of the reasons for buying of the Russian and not, say, American military equipment is that every country which has in arms Phantoms and Abrams understand - in Z-hour America can refuse to maintain them, to deliver spare parts and armament. It automatically subordinates the buyer to the American foreign policy. Purchase of military equipment in Russia looks alternative - now RF has no clear foreign policy and the buyer has all bases to rely on independent deliveries, no matter how America treats it. Let's note that now after the visit of the vice-premier of the USA to RF Russia practically refuses independent deliveries of weapon. Then why should countries of the "third world" buy Russian Su and MiG if it doesn't make them independent? The more so there are already Chinese analogues and foreign policy of People's Republic of China is independent.