TULA, September 29. /TASS/. The contract on supplying Russian S-400 missile systems to Turkey is being fulfilled and Ankara has already made the advance payment, Russian presidential aide for military and technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said on Friday.
"The contract has entered into force, the advance payment has been made, I cannot say about the timeframe now," Kozhin said.
The issue of giving to Turkey production technologies for S-400 systems has not been discussed; the parties have agreed only supplies of produced systems, he added. "We are not speaking about it, as yet we speak only about supplies of ready weapons, technologies - no," he said.
On September 12, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara had signed an agreement with Moscow to purchase S-400 missile systems and had already made an advance payment. Kozhin told TASS such a contract had been signed and was about to be implemented. Turkish Undersecretary for Defense Industry Ismail Demir said the delivery of S-400 systems would begin within two years.
Russia’s S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) is the latest long-range antiaircraft missile system that went into service in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and surface targets. The S-400 can engage targets at a distance of 400 kilometers and at an altitude of up to 30 kilometers.