MOSCOW – Russia to build air defense system maintainance center in Iran,Presidential Aide for defense industry cooperation Vladimir Kozhin saidMonday, Sputnik has reported.

“We are creating a special service center in Iran, to which we havesupplied our air defense systems,” Kozhin said in an interview with theRossiya-24 TV channel.

The cooperationlink>on establishingservice centers will develop in the future, the presidential aide added.

According to Kozhin, Moscow will develop a global network of its servicecenters that will focus on the maintenance of Russian military equipment.

“We have always had a weak point in our defense industry — themaintenance-related issues. We have been able and are able to produceamazing equipment, to sell it, to fulfill a contract, but we had problemswith service… A big group of our defense industry producers able to conductmaintenance activities of their equipment has entered the market… Itsignificantly changes the situation, because our centers are being builtin almost every region, or they already exist there,” the presidential aidesaid.

Kozhin added that Russia had already amended the country’s legislationin order to ensure proper conditions for work of such facilities.

The contract to deliver Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missile systemsto Iran was signed in 2007. In 2011, Iran sued Russia in the GenevaArbitration Court after Moscow suspended the contract the year prior,citing a UN Security Council resolution that placed an arms embargoon Tehran.

In April 2015, Russia resumed talks on S-300 deliveries following aframework agreement on the landmark deal ensuring the peaceful natureof Tehran’s nuclear program.

In July, the Iranian Air Force confirmed that the S-300s had assumed combatduty.