Armenia's army keeps the balance of powers and has an advantage over the Azerbaijani army even without Russia's $200mln loan, says Major General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, Artsakh War Hero more known as "Commandos."
Talking to ArmInfo's correspondent, Major General Ter-Tadevosyan said the Armenian army prevails over the adversary in a range of parameters, though Azerbaijan's intelligence is good enough. Therefore, he said, Azerbaijani is well aware of these parameters too. "Of course, Aliyev-junior prefers not speaking about that in his inflammatory rhetoric. We follow this example in the given issue, as it is not within the national interests of the Armenian republics to voice such details," he said.
In this light, Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan believes that acquisition of new types of weapons from Russia will sure reinforce the Armenian army, but it will not have a crucial impact on the current state of affairs. He is sure that the Russian "Smerch," "Igla" and "Solntsepyok" will just maintain the current state of affairs and the alignment of forces.
Under the agreement on provision of a 200 mln USD loan to Armenia, the Armenian armed forces will acquire 9Љ58 "Smerch" multiple artillery rocket systems with ammunition, "Igla-S" surface-to-air missile systems, "Avtobaza-M" passive signals-intelligence systems, TOS-1A "Solntsepyok" flame throwers, "Tigr" all-terrain infantry mobility vehicles, "Konkurs-M" anti-tank missile systems, RPG-26 anti-tank rocket launchers, KamAZes, as well as communications equipment and engineering equipment.
The agreement of Russia's concessional loan was signed in 2015. Armenia will start repaying the loan at the annual interest of 3% in 2018 in terms of Russian rubles within 10 years. The prepayment will total just 10%. Actually, the two Armenians republics can buy an endless amount of weapons from Russia for $200mln considering the continuous devaluation of the Russian ruble and Armenia's CSTO membership.