Russia Tries to Sell Planes, Helicopters and Guns to Canada

Created: 01.06.2006 13:45 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:55 MSK\

Russian trade delegation is visiting Ottawa this week to offer Canada “rather huge planes and helicopters and even guns,” as the Russian Ambassador to Canada Georgy Mamedov said on Wednesday, May 31.

Canadian government is poised to spend billions on new military hardware. Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor wants to acquire long-range cargo planes and heavy-lift helicopters, both for the Afghanistan mission. The planes would also enable the delivery of massive amounts of troops, their heavy equipment and humanitarian relief to world hotspots on short notice.

The Russians are trying to interest Canada in their Ilyushin Il-76 MD-90 four-engine long-range cargo plane and their Mi-17V heavy lift transport helicopter, and they’re offering the incentive of leasing instead of buying and delivering directly to Afghanistan where they’re needed most. The Russians also say they can beat the delivery time of the nearest competitors by almost half by getting them into the hands of the Canadian Forces by late next year.

Canadian government has committed to keeping at least 2,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2009 and has pledged to get them more aircraft.

The government headed by Stephen Harper appears to favor the American built C-17 Boeing Globemaster long-range cargo plane, and heavy Chinook transport helicopters, but Russia is already applying direct political pressure on Mr. Harper to eschew buying from NATO countries. Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made a direct pitch to Mr. Harper earlier this year in Ottawa and President Vladimir Putin will keep the pressure on in their first meeting next month in St. Petersburg at the G8 summit. “He will have bilateral discussions with President Putin,” Ambassador Mamedov said, quoted by the Ottawa Citizen. “One of the major topics will of course be security ... be it the war on terrorism, or providing for critical security for our infrastructure in energy co-operation. It certainly means, also, arms sales.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay will face similar lobbying when he visits Moscow later this month.

Ambassador Mamedov hosted a nearly two-hour presentation by five Russian arms sellers for an exclusive industry audience at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa on Wednesday, offering a full screening of the presentation the officials are showing to Canadian officials this week. The team acknowledged trying to persuade Canada to buy Russian would not be easy, but the delegation went to the trouble of bringing a draft treaty on military-industrial co-operation just in case.

“We don’t have any illusions here,” said Alexander Skobeltsyn, the leader of the trade mission and director of Russia’s federal agency on military co-operation. “Wise people say that rather than depend on one person, you should be friends with two.”

Mamedov reminded his audience that Canada already leases long-range Russian-built cargo planes to deliver humanitarian aid and heavy equipment, while the civilian equivalent of the Russian helicopter is now used on Alberta oil rigs. U.S. officials admit some Russian helicopters can carry more weight in mountains than their American counterparts.

http://mosnews.com/money/2006/06/01/...military.shtml