Russia in the Global Arms Market

Stagnation in a Changing Market Landscape

By: Sergey Denisentsev

August 18, 2017

Russia remains a major player in the global defense market. Various estimates are available on the size of Russian arms exports (more on that later) — but all leading market monitors agree that Russia is currently the world’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States. Arms exports are an important source of earnings for the Russian economy. In 2016, Russia exported $285.7 billion worth of goods and services; according to the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), defense hardware and services accounted for 5.2 percent of that figure ($15 billion in absolute terms). But Russia’s overall exports rely disproportionately on raw materials and minerals — especially hydrocarbons, which account for 62 percent of the total. If we exclude energy from the tally, arms exports become even more important for the Russian economy. For example, they make up over 60 percent of Russian machinery exports ($15 billion of $24.4 billion). In other words, arms exports are one of the very few success stories in the Russian high-tech sector, along with the exports of nuclear technologies and materials.

Photo Credit: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images

Originally published at www.csis.org.