Head of Rostec: U.S. had to lift sanctions from Russia to purchase spare parts for Mi-17 helicopters
Sergey Chemezov, the General Director of the state corporation Rostec, claimed that the sanctions imposed by the United States on the purchase of Russian weapons do not seriously affect Rosoboronexport's sales volumes.
“We had practically no direct cooperation with the United States. Except for the helicopters that we supplied for the needs of the army of Afghanistan. About 50 Mi-17 transport helicopters were manufactured and delivered. Today, all that’s left is the task of how to repair them, so the Americans are forced to cancel sanctions against Rosoboronexport once more in order to purchase spare parts,” he said in an interview with the Vesti Nedeli program, which was broadcast in the far east of Russia.
The head of Rostec noted that the U.S. remained Russia's sales market only for sports and hunting weapons for the Kalashnikov Concern.
"Unfortunately, we have been deprived of this market. Americans, by the way, are not very happy with this. They would gladly buy and want to buy our weapons," said Chemezov. "So we had to look for new markets - such as the Arab world, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. "