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Defense Deal With Russian Weapons Firm Canceled

Firm was doing business with Assad regime

An Afghan pilot cleans the glass of Soviet-era Mi-17 helicopter / AP
November 13, 2013

The Department of Defense has canceled its deal to buy Mi-17 helicopters from a Russian state arms exporter that has also supplied arms to the Assad regime, after the proposal was met with an outcry from congress.

Reuters reports:

The Pentagon will no longer buy Russian helicopters for the Afghan Air Force from Rosoboronexport, a state-owned arms exporter that also sells weapons to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a leading Senate opponent of such deals said on Wednesday.

The switch in Pentagon policy appears to end, at least for now, its plans to buy an additional 15 Russian Mi-17 helicopters for $345 million, sources familiar with the matter said.

"I applaud the Defense Department's decision to finally cancel its plan to buy additional helicopters from Rosoboronexport," Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said in a statement. "Doing business with the supplier of these helicopters has been a morally bankrupt policy, and as a nation, we should no longer be subsidizing Assad's war crimes," Cornyn said.

U.S. lawmakers, including Cornyn, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) and Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) objected to the proposal, noting that Rosoboronexport has been providing arms to the Syrian regime and fueling the country’s civil war.

Cornyn called on then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to cancel the plan in a letter in June 2012.

"Rosoboronexport, as the Assad regime’s chief supplier of weapons, is an enabler of mass murder in Syria," Cornyn wrote. "Yet, in June 2011, two months after the Syrian uprising began, the DoD awarded a no-bid Army contract to Rosoboronexport for the purchase of Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan military.  I remain deeply troubled that the DoD would knowingly do business with a firm that has enabled mass atrocities in Syria.  Such actions by Rosoboronexport warrant the renewal of U.S. sanctions against it, not a billion-dollar DoD contract."