Kremlin: Agreement with Turkey to supply S-400 air defense systems effectively achieved
Russia and Turkey have almost agreed on the delivery of S-400 anti-air defense systems, said Dmitry Shugaev, director of the Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation in an interview for Kommersant.
According to him, the matter of supplying the systems has nearly been resolved. “The current matter has virtually come of age, but it isn’t a question of supplying firing weapons, but of a serious system, and thus there are fine details,” Shugaev said, expressing the hope that soon Moscow and Ankara would reach a “positive outcome” in this matter.
“Our ‘overseas friends’ are resentful, of course, but Turkey is an independent state and can decide on its own whether to buy or not to buy, to unite or not to unite,” Shugaev added.
On July 25, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan announced that he had signed an agreement to purchase Russian S-400 anti-air missile systems. At that stage the Kremlin refused to comment on the Turkish leader’s statement. “We will not comment,” said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to the Russian president.
As reported earlier by RBC news agency, Russia offered to sell Turkey S-400 anti-air missile systems at a price of $500 million per division. Negotiations regarding the delivery of these systems to Turkey reportedly lasted for several months.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis commented earlier on Turkey’s plans to purchase Russian S-400s. Notably, he remarked that the deal will result in a number of unavoidable issues, including the “incompatibility” of the Russian systems with NATO technology.