Caspian Report - Issue 06 - Winter 2014

MESUT HAKKI CAŞIN
Nuri al-Maliki signed an arms package
purchase agreement with Russia
worth $4.2 billion during a visit to
Moscow in October 2012. Russia is
delivering 10 Mi-28NE attack helicopters
and 50 Pantsyr-S1 gun-missile
short-range air defense systems to
Iraq as part of a $4.2 billion contract
with Baghdad that has become vital
for Moscow arms exports to the Mediterranean
basin. Moreover, Kremlin is
negotiating its biggest weapons deals
with Egypt since the Cold War. Indeed,
Egypt is seeking as much as $2 billion
of Russian weaponry, including MiG-
29 fighter planes, air-defense systems
and anti-tank missiles. The talks
came as a Russian warship docked at
an Egyptian base on the Red Sea may
be a new signal that strengthening
links between the navies of the two
countries.
To sum up, we can expect two opposing
predictions about Russia’s new
naval force strategy: In the first alternative,
we may speculate that in the
light of Russia’s attempt to establish
regional naval power aims to counter
balance US and NATO hegemony
through enlargement and military
integration in the Mediterranean Re-
126