MOSCOW – Russia mocks American Missile System Defence deployed in SaudiArabia and has a word of advice for Kingdom Rulers to replace it with theRussian Missile defence system.
The attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities last weekend were a disaster forboth Riyadh and Washington, with weapons allegedly made in Irancircumventing expensive U.S. missile defense systems.
But in Moscow, news of the attack was greeted as yet another chance to mockthe United States and its allies – all while extolling the virtues ofRussia’s own missile defense technology, The Washington Post has reported.
“We still remember the fantastic U.S. missiles that failed to hit a targetmore than a year ago, while now the brilliant U.S. air defense systemscould not repel an attack,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman MariaZakharova told a briefing on Friday. “These are all links in a chain.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Ankara for a meeting with Turkish andIranian leaders on Monday, went further by suggesting that Saudi Arabiawould have been saved from Saturday’s attack if they had purchased amissile defense system made by Russia.
Read Top Stories
“The political leadership of Saudi Arabia just needs to make a wise statedecision,” Putin said on Monday, pointing to the purchase of the S-300missile system by Iran and the S-400 missile system by Turkey.
The rivalry between the United States and Russia over arms sales hasexisted ever since the Cold War; between 2014 and 2018, they were the twolargest exporters of arms in the world, according to the StockholmInternational Peace Research Institute.
But over the past few years, that rivalry has grown especially bitter asgeopolitical conflict and new technology brought U.S. and Russian arms intoclose contact. In the Middle East, where tension and war have led to asurge in arms sales, Washington and Moscow often compete for the sameclients.
