MOSCOW. May 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Foreign orders for Russian weapons make up a portfolio that is worth more than $30 billion, Konstantin Biryulin, deputy director of the Federal Service for Military Technological Cooperation, said, adding that he thought the volume of this year's exports would stay at the 2008 level of $8.35 billion.
"Speaking about the contract portfolio, it is more than $30 billion, this is quite a large volume. It is probably premature to name any specific figures that we will obtain this year. The specific figures will come some time closer to the end of the year, but I think the volume of exports should more or less stay at the level of last year," Biryulin told Interfax-AVN.
This is important for Russia, he said, "because, apart from everything else, we are aware of the economic situation that has been caused in the world by the economic crisis." "Though we have had no specific refusals to import any of our weapons due to this crisis, we are in any case aware that this may happen," Biryulin said.
He also said Russian weapons exports had kept growing in recent years. "Whereas at the beginning of this century total exports were about $3 billion, now we have achieved quite a high pace," he said.
Russian-made weapons are well known all over the world, Biryulin said. "The 'export pie' that we have is quite diversified. It isn't represented by one or two countries, let's put it that way," he said.