Azernews.Az

YEREVAN – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan questions Russia and Azerbaijan’s having agreed on the supplies of S-300 missiles, Novosti Armenii news agency reported.

"Frankly, I am not so sure that such an agreement has been reached in the higher echelons [of power]," the report quoted him as saying in an interview with a Ukrainian TV channel.

Sargsyan said further that Azerbaijan’s buying Russian weaponry was "no news for Armenia, but we cannot reproach Russia for this".

"Certainly, we can be unhappy, this is our problem, but it would be wrong to blame Russia for selling weapons to Azerbaijan."

Sargsyan noted that S-300 missile systems are primarily air defense weapons.

"Such systems have long been available in Armenia, and we have a lot of them," he claimed.

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.