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RF to purchase light armored vehicles from Italy-General Makarov

Russia will purchase from Italy light armored vehicles, the chief of the Russian General Staff, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov

MOSCOW, November 10 (Itar-Tass) — Russia will purchase from Italy light armored vehicles, the chief of the Russian General Staff, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov, told reporters after talks with his Italian counterpart General Biagio Abrate on Thursday.

“In the course of our talks we discussed a number of issues of military and military-technical cooperation,” Makarov said. “You know that we are buying from Italy a certain number of armored vehicles, particularly, light armored vehicles, and we intend to continue this activity.”

Makarov said, “I believe that all these military-technical cooperation issues that we have discussed today will be solved at the level of both the Defense Ministry and the national leadership,” he said.

Abrate said, “We plan to continue cooperation in the industrial sphere and also in the sphere of military hardware and gear.”

He said, “It is very important for cooperation during crisis situations and their settlement. We are unanimous we should not show aggression towards anyone, but we must be able to defend ourselves.”

The Russian Defense Ministry pays special attention to military-technical cooperation with Italy. At the end of 2010 military delegations from both countries held a number of talks, after which the Russian Defense Ministry made a decision to purchase from the Italian company Iveco ten light multirole vehicles LMV M65 (Lynx).

According to Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, “the intensification of the military-technical cooperation not only at the industrial level, but at the level of defense ministries of Russia and Italy opens up mutually beneficial prospects.” He said, Russia was interested in getting several Italian vehicles of various types “to let Russian ground forces test their capabilities in action.”