Hullabaloo over Russia’s possible supply of two batteries of S-300PMU2 Favorit air-defense system to Azerbaijan, is whipped up. First Russian Vedomosti.ru spread this information referring to sources in the Russian defense industry followed by immediate response from Baku. Deputy Head of the press service at the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Teymur Abdullayev stated that Azerbaijan is strengthening its army and intends to undertake further activities in this direction.

NEWS.am addressed Rosoboronexport for the details. Speaking to NEWS.am’s correspondent, press secretary of the Rosoboronexport Director General Vyacheslav Davydenko neither confirmed nor refuted the reports. In a private talk, however, he said: “We are not allowed to make any comments on the agreement, as the agreement has a relevant stipulation. Russia signed an interstate agreement with one of the partner countries, which has nothing to do with any others.”

Several hours after NEWS.am posted the article, Russian press spread information saying that Davydenko refuted reports on an agreement between Rosoboronexport and the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan.

NEWS.am once again contacted Vyacheslav Davydenko with a request to comment on the contradiction in his statements. Davydenko said that his official comments are as follows, “Rosoboronexport has no information concerning the deal. We have no information on such an agreement.” Davydenko also found difficult to answer who might spread this information and what the reason was.

We can just make guesses about the reasons for such a contradictory change of positions. It might be also caused by the opinions of some experts who said that the deal will provoke hostilities in the region, or, possibly, Rosoboronexport just disliked media’s deep interest in the matter.