Russia Managed to Neutralize Threat of Sanctions to Defense Cooperation

Russian Presidential Aide for Military-Technical Cooperation claims that Russia has managed to neutralize the threat of western sanctions to the enterprises of its defense industry and has maintained the cooperation with other states in the field.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia has managed to neutralize the threat of western sanctions to the enterprises of its defense industry and has maintained the cooperation with other states in the field, Russian Presidential Aide for Military-Technical Cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said Thursday.

"I do not want to deny that sanctions had effect on us… However, we have managed to neutralize these threats," Kozhin said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television channel.

According to Kozhin, the sanctions against the Russian defense industry have been designed to hinder Russia's military cooperation with other states, but did not prove successful.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in February that Russia accounted for almost a quarter of the world's exports of weapons in 2012-2016.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the volume of Russian military exports in 2016 had exceeded $15 billion while its exports portfolio remained at $50 billion.