Russian Realpolitik: Inside the Arms Trade with Syria

TIME ^ | July 1, 2012 | Simon Shuster

[cunning_fish]

“This weapon is perfect for close-quarters combat, house to house,” the Russian arms dealer explains, gently passing a silencer-equipped assault rifle, the AK-104, to the official from Syria, who brings the gun’s sight level with his eye and aims it across pavilion C3 of Russia’s semiannual arms bazaar. Serving as their translator is Colonel Isam Ibrahim As’saadi, the military attaché at the Syrian embassy in Moscow, who chaperones the three officials in town from Damascus for a bit of military shopping. It is a rare opportunity for them. With their country sinking into a civil war, most of the world’s top arms-dealing nations have banned sales to the Syrian government. So the delegates enjoy themselves in Moscow. They spend more than an hour talking to the Kalashnikov salesman, Andrei Vishnyakov, head of marketing for Izhmash, the company that created the AK-47. Then they stroll over to other displays spread out across the giant Zhukovsky airfield near Moscow. They peruse tanks, touch rocket launchers, study cruise missiles and other heavy artillery, all of which stand gleaming in the summer sun like so many sports cars at a dealership. All of it is for sale.

Welcome to Russia’s premier weapons expo, the deceptively titled Forum of Technologies in Machine Building

Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/07/01/russian-realpolitik-inside-the-arms-trade-with-syria/#ixzz1znhbx2so

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks cunning_fish.