Ionisyan: Attempting to Create the Impression that the Air Defense Systems Received from Russia Were of High Quality

Daniel Ionisyan, the coordinator of the civic organization 'Informed Citizens', writes on his Facebook page: 'Those circles receiving funding from Russia are trying to create the impression that the air defense systems we received from Russia were quite high quality. In this regard, let me recount the story of the S-300s from 2010. So, in that year, Russia supplied Armenia and Azerbaijan with two divisions of S-300 air defense systems each. However, while the version supplied to Azerbaijan was of the PMU2 modification from 2009, we received the PS version from 1982. These are fundamentally different systems, as the range of what we were supplied was 75 km, while the one sold to Azerbaijan could hit targets at a distance of 200 km... not to mention other parameters such as maximum target speed, minimum altitude, and the number of tracked targets, among others.

Moreover, the systems we were supplied had served in the Moscow Military District and were retired due to aging/decay, which means they were never repaired to even be restored to a condition from 1982. But whether during the time of Serzh Sargsyan's circles or now, those who sit on Russian funds attempt to create the impression that the weapons provided to us were good. It's good that, while changing course, those who are afraid of declaring the money received from the Russians are not saying that ‘the Russians have aimed their weapons at Azerbaijan and the ‘controls’ of these weapons were given to us’... The pro-Russian bloggers of that time had even reached that level of absurdity.

By the way, those who say that the morally and physically worn-out weapons are 'user-related' should go enlist in the Russian army and become meat grinders with Mosin rifles.'