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Russia only sells weapons to legitimate governments

President Putin: Russia cares for its reputation as a responsible participant of the global military market
Photo ITAR-TASS/ Alexey Nikolski
Photo ITAR-TASS/ Alexey Nikolski

MOSCOW, October 14 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged global weapons producers to take Russia as an example in supplying weapons only to legitimate governments.

“Russia cares for its reputation as a responsible participant of the global military market," he said. "We stick to our commitments and keep to the rules of non-proliferation and control over weapons. I should note that Russian law allows weapons supplies to foreign countries strictly according to their legal regime. We conclude agreements only with legitimate governments and only with the aim of providing for these countries’ defensive capacity and sovereignty,” he told a meeting of the Commission for Military Technical Co-operation.

“Specific situations in particular regions" were always subject to comprehensive evaluation, he told the audience. “It is our fundamental view that weapons supplies to illegal groups disrupt safety in particular countries, regions and worldwide. I am sure many conflicts in different regions could be averted if global weapons producers had taken the same approach as Russia.”

Putin said the intellectual property of Russian weapons producers had to be protected. “We need to improve intellectual property protection for Russian weapons produced abroad, in compliance with international law rules. It is not only weapons produced under agreements concluded with the USSR, in particular Eastern Europe, where we are often faced with unresolved issues, but also the new and the latest weapons,” the president said, noting that the “global weapons market had seen many examples of illegal copying of others’ ideas", and that Russia had also been repeatedly faced with this problem.

“Our task is to ensure high-standard protection of science-intensive products and intellectual property, and assert the rights of Russian producers — both Russian plants and inventors,” added Putin. “We need to develop a complex system for legal protection of Russian products.”

“It is important for each producer in particular, and for Russia to strengthen its position in the hi-tech market," the president said. "Intellectual property protection will help increase Russian companies’ investment appeal and will open the way for new, promising forms of co-operation, including with foreign partners.”