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Russia exports record $13.2 bn in arms
Russia set an arms export record of $13.2 billion (€10.1 billion) last year despite losing Arab clients and facing stiffer competition from China, AFP reported.
A Russian military official said that sales in arms lost through abandoned Libyan contracts were made up for through an increase in sales to European nations including Germany and the Czech Republic
25% of Russian sales went to India, 15% to Algeria and 10% to Vietnam.
Russia exported $10.4 billion in arms in 2010, in second place behind the United States.
Defence officials had earlier said they expected to lose some $4 billion in revenue from arms contracts abandoned by Libya following the fall of Moammer Gaddhafi's regime and Moscow's hesitant support for the opposition.
Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation chief Mikhail Dmitriyev said Russia compensated for its Arab world losses by resuming sales to European nations such as Germany and the Czech Republic, and picking up clients in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
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Very bad indeed, as are all the other European exporters of arma, and the USA that, alone, exports more weapons than all the other countries in the world put together
