RE;Russia25 Jan 2022 10:37
Arms To Russia And Still Has 271 Export Licences, Despite Crimea Crisis
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Britain Sells £86m Of Arms To Russia And Still Has 271 Export Licences, Despite Crimea Crisis
Jessica Elgot
By
Jessica Elgot
05/03/2014 05:22am GMT | Updated March 5, 2014
Britain has sold more than £86m of sniper rifles, ammunition, drones and laser technology to Russia in just over a year, it can be revealed.
There are 271 arms export licences given for arms sales, air vehicles, military helicopters, and spy equipment to Russia that remain active, despite the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Between 2008-2013 UK licensed over £406 million in military and dual use licences to Russia, according to official Whitehall documents.
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The ongoing licences would appear to be a breach of the government's own rules, with Foreign Secretary William Hague telling the House of Commons' Committees on Arms Export Controls last year that "the British Government will not issue licences where we judge there is a clear risk the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts, or which might be used to facilitate internal repression.”
Armed men in military fatigues, believed to be Russian soldiers, seen near Simferopol, Crimea
Andrew Smith, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “This is another example of the shortcomings of a UK foreign policy that all too often promotes the profits of arms companies ahead of human rights.
"The UK should be using its political influence to promote peace, not arms sales.”
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"The UK government needs to urgently explain it's arms sales to Russia and demonstrate what steps it has taken to ensure no UK supplied equipment is being used in the current Crimea crisis," Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International's director of military security and police told HuffPost UK.
"Without urgent explanation of who these arms were destined for and how they were going to be used, these figures seem to suggest we have been supplying exactly the kind of weaponry that risks being used to escalate the current military crisis in the region, with all the likely catastrophic consequences that such armed violence will inevitably bring."
The chairman of the government's own committee, Sir John Stanley, has previously said questions needed to be ask whether licences to China, Sri Lanka, Iran and, crucially, Russia, had been sufficiently scrutinised.
Deals with Russia account for £3m worth of ammunition, £86,000 of drones, and £22m on intelligence equipment, used to encrypt sensitive data.
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An FCO spokesman has told the Sun that the Government is "urgently reviewing arms export licences for Russia and will make a decision in consultation with our allies."
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