Russian arms exports soaring

MOSCOW -- Russian military officials expect arms exports to soar in 2000, reaching $4 billion worth of sales.

Ilya Klebanov, VicePrime Minister responsible for military industries, said last week Russia is expected to sell arms worth more than $4 billion in 2000 in view of the increasing demand for T-90 tanks, destroyers and Sukhoi and MiG fighters, .

The main Russian exporter, Rosvoorujenie, has already chalked up over $10 billion worth of orders. Company executives attribute the record number of orders to simple designs for competitive prices.

But poor quality of the Russian-produced armaments often torpedoes the deals.

Sales of the Sukhoi fighters, which account for almost half of the exports, were damaged last year by several crashes, including the crash in early 1999 of a Su-27 aircraft just purchased by Ethiopia. Five months later the newly developed Su-30 crashed at the Paris air show.

India has stopped negotiating a deal to purchase 300 T-90 tanks after two-thirds of the missiles on the previous consignment of tanks failed to hit their targets.