Russia has sold $9.8 billion dollars worth of weapons and military equipment since the beginning of this year, the deputy director of Russia's Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Anatoly Punchuk, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday.
"Russia will remain one of the main leaders in the arms trade and, most importantly, a disciplined supplier of arms orders," Punchuk said at the 2014 Euronaval international arms expo in Paris.
However strong Russia's position in the international arms market may be, sales for 2014 are looking to fall short of 2013's $15.7 billion.
In early July, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had already sold $5.6 billion worth of arms and equipment since the beginning of the year, and that the portfolio of foreign orders had reached nearly $50 billion since the beginning of this year.
Later in July, the European Union slapped an arms embargo on Russia, preventing European firms from signing any new contracts for the import or export of Russian arms and defense related goods and services. In previous years, Europe imported about $3 billion in arms from Russia annually.
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