Russian Foreign Ministry refutes information about supplies of Russian military hardware of total of $800 mln to Armenia

Moscow states that Russia did not supply military hardware to Armenia in 2008 and the information about it, spread by Azerbaijani mass medias, is of anti-Russian nature.

It should be noted that the information about free supply of Russian military hardware of a total of $800,000,000 to Yerevan has become the most sensational news of Azerbaijani mass medias after New Year. The first statement on this issue appeared on January 10, on January 12 Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasili Istratov was invited to Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, where he received an official request about the reliability of information about supplies of Russian military hardware to Armenia. Istratov said that Russian side will provide explanations on this issue.

Explanations took 9 days to be made public. "Referring to the note of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry of January 15 of 2009 in a response to the concerns of Azerbaijani side the Foreign Ministry of Russia informs the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan that the Defense Ministry of Russia did not supply or sell military hardware, fixed in a document, published on January 8 of 2008", says the note of the Russian Foreign Ministry, handed to adviser of embassy of Azerbaijan in Moscow Bakhish Zeynalov and posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

According to sources from the Ministry, this information was posted on one of the websites of Azerbaijan and later received a wide resonance in Azerbaijani mass medias.

"The said publication is anti-Russian disinformation and it does not promote positive development of friendly Russian-Azerbaijani relations", states the note.

"The Russian side considers that the issue, raised in the aforementioned note of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, has expired and voices confidence that if any other concerns appear the parties will not draw early conclusions and steps and will jointly settle possible doubts in the spirit of close relations of strategic partnership binding Russia and Azerbaijan", says the document. Moscow voices hope that "The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan will be able to inform the public and Azerbaijani mass medias about the position of the Russian side"

Notably, the first information about supplies of military hardware from Russian military base 102 in Gumri of a total of $800,000,000 to Armenia was provided by Azerbaijani ANS TV channel on January 10. It referred to spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Alexander Petrunin that "supplies of any military hardware of Russian military base 102 is regulated by an intergovernmental agreement". At the same time, Petrunin allegedly said that free military hardware supplies are out of the question here.

Later Azerbaijani Mediaforum.az posted the list of military hardware, allegedly supplied to Armenia by the Russian side.

According to ANS TV, the military hardware supply in 2008 was undersigned by deputy command of armed troops of the North Caucasus military okrug on armament Vyachslav Golovchenko.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the invitation of the Russian ambassador but refused on comment on the incident saying "an inspection is held on the said fact". The Defense Ministry of Russia spoke for definitely: spokesman of the Ministry Alexander Drobishevski said that the Russian Defense Ministry received a request of Azerbaijani counterparts about supplies of military hardware to Armenia and a response is prepared for the purpose.

"There was no confirmation that Russia supplied Armenia with military hardware. We evaluate such statements as information provocation", announced Drobishevski. He also said "colonel Alexander Petrunin is not authorized to make such comments to anyone".

Armenia also rebutted information in the Azerbaijani mass medias. Spokesman for the Defense Ministry of the country Seyran Shahsuvaryan said "he does not understand the source of this information" and called is "disinformation".

/Day.Az/