Russia to set new record with 8-billion-dollar arms sales in 2008

Russia already has several contracts ready to ship its military hardware to Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and several other countries. Alexander Fomin, the chairman of the Russian official delegation at Farnborough International Airshow, said that Russia was currently conducting defense cooperation talks with Saudi Arabia. The country is interested in buying Russian transport and battle choppers and air defense systems. It was previously reported that Rosoboronexport, Russia’s major defense export corporation, was working on a four-billion-dollar contract with Saudi Arabia. The preliminary arrangement to purchase arms from Russia was achieved in November 2007 during Putin’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud in the Kremlin. Russia also conducts active defense cooperation talks with Venezuela. “We have several contracts with this country and we plan to sign more of them in the future,” Alexander Fomin said.