In an interview with the program ‘Military Acceptance’ dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Rosoboronexport, Lavrov stated: ‘We often remember that Russia still has two allies – the army and the navy, but of course, we need to add air and space forces.’
He added: ‘If we look at the situation from a geopolitical perspective, the struggle to influence global processes to ensure the fairness of these processes and not allow any country to dictate what other countries should do and how they should behave, then Russia’s ally in its efforts to democratize international relations is Rosoboronexport (the Russian state arms export company) and all the companies that supply their products to global markets through our main intermediary. There is no doubt about that.’
The phrase that Russia has only two allies – its army and the naval fleet – is attributed to Emperor Alexander III (1881-1894). Rosoboronexport is a Russian state-owned company and the only government intermediary in Russia for the export and import of the full range of final products, technologies, and military services, and it is part of the state corporation Rostec.
