The recent exemption granted to India by the U.S. House of Representatives from sanctions under Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAASTA) for its S-400 deal is convincing other international customers apprehensive of sanctions to buy Russian equipment, a senior Russian defence official acknowledged, while stating that the delivery of S-400 systems to India is underway as per contract. In this regard, he claimed that the “special military operation in Ukraine has significantly increased the interest of foreign partners in Russian weapons”.
“In general, I want to say that we consider the Western sanctions against Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation as unfair competition and pressure on the sovereignty of both Russia and India,” Dmitry Shugaev, Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Commission, said in response to questions from visiting journalists at the Army-2022 expo here.
“In my opinion, it is not the removal or imposition of sanctions by the U.S. against a particular country that should have an impact on the purchase of Russian weapons, but its quality and effectiveness,” Mr. Shugaev stated.
On July 14, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a legislative amendment that approves an India-specific waiver from sanctions under CAASTA. However, it is yet to be approved by the U.S. Senate.
India has contracted five S-400 regiments under a $5.43 billion deal, and after some initial delay, the deliveries are now underway. Delivery of the second regiment, which was scheduled early this year, has been delayed by few months.
Referring to the war in Ukraine, Mr. Shugaev said that many of their partners evaluated the effectiveness of Russian equipment in combat based on available materials. “In addition, they were once again convinced of the high quality, reliability, durability and maintainability of Russian military products, which also made it possible to attract the attention of new potential buyers in various regions of the world,” he claimed.
“In this regard, with a high degree of certainty, we can predict the growth of interest in Russian-made military equipment in the international market,” he added.
The war in Ukraine, which has been underway for nearly six months, has seen the Russian military suffer significant setbacks, especially with the supply of sophisticated equipment from the West.
