Russia denies delivering new weapons to Syria

Moscow has not supplied Syria with new weapons since 2011 unless those envisaged by contracts signed before, state arms export agency Rosoboronexport said on Friday. "Currently Russia executes the contracts signed prior to 2011. They are 100 percent defensive, like anti-aircraft and coastal defense systems," RIA Novosti news agency quoted deputy head of Rosoboronexport Victor Komardin as saying. According to Komardin, Russia supplies Syria with Tor and Buk anti-aircraft systems as well as with Bastion coastal defense systems. The Kremlin also denied that Russia delivered new weapons to Syria. "I did not see any material about advanced payments for some of our supplies. The supplies have been conducted in line with the existing deals," Kremlin's aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters. He noted that military-technical cooperation between Syria and Russia does not violate any international norms. In June, President Vladimir Putin said Moscow has not yet executed the deal to supply Syria with the S-300 surface-to-air missiles. "S-300 is one of the best air defense systems in the world. We signed the contract a few years ago. It has not been implemented yet," Putin said following a Russia-EU summit.