Russia did not have a major presence this year at IDEX in the UAE… but over at NAVDEX on the quayside nine Russian companies were present, reports Bob Morrison.
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In the interests of fairness and neutrality it seemed only right to at least take a look around inside the compact Russian Pavilion at NAVDEX (the naval sister expo to IDEX) which is held at ADNEC Marina on the other side of the highway to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
Eight Russian defence exporting companies were housed inside the boxlike and windowless temporary building on the quayside, just 50 or so metres from the berthed HMS Bangor, and Russian Helicopters also had an open air display featuring three civilian spec aircraft just metres away on the other side. Inside the windowless pavilion, which had only four sets of small smoked glass double doors for entrance and exit, the following companies / export trading entities displayed some of their wares:-
- Almaz-Antey Corp
- High-Precision Weapons
- Kalashnikov Group
- Rosel
- RosOboronExport
- Shvabe
- Technodinamika
- Ulyanovsk Cartridge Works
Western sanctions against Russian arms exporting companies, introduced in response to the February 2022 invasion of sovereign Ukrainian territory by the Russian Federation, no doubt seriously affected the abilities of these organisations to do business at NAVDEX (and IDEX) 2023 but it should never be forgotten that some major military players outside of Europe and North America are only too willing to become Russia’s next best friend in these uncertain times.
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