Russia: Military corporates doing brisk trades despite sanctions

The Russian military corporations are seeing strong demand for its Kalashnikov weapons despite U.S. sanctions against the Russian defense sector, Rostec chief executive, Sergei Chemezov, told Sputnik news .

In a statement, Chemezov said that before the sanctions, hit by Washington and the European Union (EU) on Russia, the Russian military corporations in 2016 had about US $46 million deals, while the total transactions today are about $300 million, which is a 6.5 growth.

"The annual revenues of the Russian Kalashnikov company amounted to more than $600 million, while the net profit for 2018 will be about US $ 45 million," he said.

Meanwhile, Chemezov added, Russia will supply to China a replacement for the S-400 air defense system missiles instead of those damaged during a storm in the English Channel a year ago.

"The contract had been signed a long time ago. The shipment would’ve been carried by now, but regrettably the ship that was carrying the missiles was hit by a storm. We were forced to eliminate all those missiles to make new ones instead," Chemezov said.