Belarusian military analyst Alexander Alesin has told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper of Russia that his country’s Polonez multiple launch rocket system purchase deal with Azerbaijan was not brought to fruition due to Armenia.

“We [Belarus] wanted to sell Polonezes to Azerbaijan,” Alesin explained. “But our CSTO partner Armenia was against it; [so] the deal did not take place.

“Azerbaijan is one of the largest customers to whom we sell air defense systems. (…). There is a prospect for expanding cooperation. We upgrade also the Su-27 and the Su-25 fighter jets for them.

“We sell a lot of weapons to the CSTO countries. (…). Maybe we’ll soon start selling non-flight weapons to Armenia.”