For the foreseeable Russia does not mind making arms with Belarus

Belarus demonstrates a growing interest to the newest Russian arms. At the military exhibition MILEX-2007 held in Minsk, Belarus the correspondent of PravdaRu asked Deputy General Director on Strategic Development of Military-Industrial Company Andrey Abramchuk about the perspectives of mutual cooperation.

Recently similar exhibition IDET-2007 took place in the Czech town of Brno. Neither Rosoboronexport, nor any other Russian company participated in that exhibition. According to Mr. Abramchuk A.I. this is because the exhibition in Czech Republic is focused more on the countries of central Europe, the countries which nearly all joined NATO. “We do not have any significant interest in that region at the moment. The exhibition in Belarus is focused more on the countries where there are consumers of our hardware. Here we have quite productive contacts which have been actively supported recently. In this region there is interest to the newest Russian made and CIS made machinery and hardware.” - he stated.

According to the Deputy General Director of the company which has broad links with Belarusian partners Belarus is considered not only as the consumer, but also as partner for the manufacture of modern samples of machinery. “To ignore the cooperation which has been since the Soviet Union would be just silly”, stressed Mr. Abramchuk.

Assessing the tendencies of this cooperation he said that nowadays business cooperation is based not on the current political preferences or brotherhood feelings. It is based on commonly accepted business principles as well as on the available potential of the enterprises. “Therefore it would be fair to refer to our cooperation on the principle “as of today”. Belarusian and Russian enterprises, using their traditional cooperation, make a competitive product which enjoys demand in the markets. I think this is the foundation of our mutual relations”.

PravdaRu repeatedly wrote about the problem of illegal manufacture of Soviet / Russian models of military machinery and arms in the countries of the East Europe under the expired licenses. It concerns Kalashnikov machine guns, illegal modernization of helicopters, tanks, rocket systems without the consent of the designer.

Andrey Abramchuk put it absolutely clear: “No, our relations with Belarus are regulated by the existing legislation, both between the enterprises and between the states. I cannot refer to any example of similar problems in our mutual relations with Belarus, as with the former socialist countries. It is true that de facto the countries of Eastern Europe violate the norms of the international law concerning the products of intellectual activities. There are no such problems with Belarus, our relations are absolutely legitimate and focused on making a joint product”.

Yuri Seleznyov