/ 15 June 1999

RUSSIA AND LIBYA IN AIRCRAFT DEAL

RUSSIA is ready to sell civilian helicopters and planes to Libya. President Boris Yeltsin in May signed a decree confirming the resumption of diplomatic and economic cooperation between the two countries, which were interrupted by UN Security Council sanctions against Tripoli. Russia will also deliver arms to Libya, where experts are already preparing the terrain according to Grigory Rapota, director of the Rosvoyoruzhenye arms export company. At the end of April, Yuri Rodin-Sova, president of the Russian group Oboronitelnye Systemy, said Libya would get the advanced S-300 ground-air missile system, after the UN sanctions were lifted.