Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Agayeva / Alakpar Mammadov, the independent military expert, has stated that purchasing arms from Russia may lead to Azerbaijan becoming depended on Russia again.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed a contract to supply new armaments, particularly, 70 new BTR-80 Armoured Personnel Carriers from Russia for $40mln, was reported in the Vedomosti newspaper. The press service of the Defence Ministry of Azerbaijan has reported to Trend Information Agency that they can approve this information. "The Azerbaijan Government should be diplomatic so that it can purchase armaments from modern western suppliers, not Russia," the expert said.
Rasim Musabayov, the independent Azerbaijani political scientist, has stated that it is impossible to comment on anything in advance without knowing the purpose for the purchase of the new armaments.
BTR-80 Armoured Personnel Carriers have been used from 1986.