Russia
Russia sold arms to the most wars of all the top suppliers, and was one of the few countries which was more likely to sell arms to countries that were at war. Russia is party to several global arms control agreements, which in theory should limit sales to conflict zones.
Explore the graphics below to see how the likelihood of arms sales increases or decreases with different factors.
What factors might affect arms exports from Russia?
War
Arms sales from Russia are:
- More frequent when the recipient is at war
Money
Arms sales from Russia are:
- Less frequent as the GDP (per-capita) of the recipient increases 2
- More frequent as the military expenditure of the recipient increases 1
- More frequent as the total military acquisition of the recipient from all other suppliers increases
Relationships
Arms sales from Russia are:
- More frequent if the recipient is already a recent customer 4
- Less frequent if the recipient is a member of NATO
Other
No significant difference was found between arms exports to different countries based on other miscellaneous metrics.
Conflicts
Direct conflict participation
Russia directly participated in the following conflicts:
Weapons supplies to conflict participants
Russia supplied Major Conventional Weapons to active participants in the following conflicts:
Top arms recipients
The greatest recipients of Major Conventional Weapons from Russia by value* between 1990 and 2018 are as follows:
*The SIPRI Trend Indicator Value (TIV) is a relative measure of arms transfer value, normalized for inflation and currency.
Full results
All metrics were investigated using regression analysis. The full results are reproduced here.
Footnotes
- 1Measured in constant 2018 millions of USD
- 2Both total GDP and GDP per-capita were analysed, with similar results. In each analysis whichever had higher significance is specified although the differences were minor.
- 3This metric is only applicable to supplier states whose export control regimes claim to involve any criteria related to human rights in the recipient country.
- 4Transfers above 5,000 TIV in the last five years. The SIPRI TIV unit is a measurement of the value of arms which is independent of currency and inflation.
- 5This metric is only applicable to supplier states that also participated in the conflict.
- 6This metric is only applicable to supplier states that also participated in the invasion or the main international force up to 2011.