Azernews.Az

MOSCOW – Russia has dismissed media allegations that it plans to sell missiles to Azerbaijan.

"There is no agreement between Moscow and Baku on the sale of S-300 missile systems to Azerbaijan," the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, was quoted by the local RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Nesterenko declined to comment on the circulating reports about the alleged missile sales, but said the Foreign Ministry does not deal with such issues.

"There is a whole range of specialized government agencies to deal with this, which operate in compliance with legislation...So, regarding this topic I would recommend approaching them instead. You are quite familiar with all these agencies."

The reports about Russian sales of S-300 missiles to Azerbaijan began to circulate after Russian business daily Vedomosti reported in late July that Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry and Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport had signed a contract in 2009 for the delivery of S-300 air defense missile systems worth $300 million to Azerbaijan. But the company’s representative Vyacheslav Davidenko later dismissed the reports.

However, Azerbaijani media reported in early September, quoting Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov, that the alleged arms deal was being carried out. Polukhov reportedly added then that Moscow and Baku have been negotiating the issue since 2007.