Qaddafi's Demise Cost Russia Billions in Arms Deals

ST PETERSBURG, Russia- Russia lost tens of billions of dollars in potential revenues from arms deals with Libyan leader Munammar el-Qaddafi's fall, the official in charge of Russia's arms exports said Wednesday. Russia, the world's second-largest arms exporter, has frequently cited loss of $4 billion is only nominal. The real lost revenue could top tens of billions of dollars in Libyan arms contracts. "The figure of $4 billion is only nominal. The real lost revenue could top tens of billions of dollars, "said Mikhail Dmitriyev, e head of Russia's Federal Service on Military and Technical Cooperation.’ There is no doubt there were losses… We have no contacts with the new Libyan leadership in the [defense] field any longer," he said. the Kremlin has been criticized by some diplomats for its ambiguous stance in the Libya crisis: failing to support the Western-backed revolt against Qaddafi, backing sanctions against him and allowing Western military action. Such was the discord within the Russian elite over Libya that it provoked a rare public disagreement between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev. Russian companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas exploration there, and Russian Railways was building a railway under a $3 billion contract. Arms contracts signed under Qaddafi's rule made up 12 percent of Russia's 2011 arms exports, worth a total of $10 billion.