{"id":15581,"date":"2018-02-02T14:28:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T14:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/02\/ukraine-claims-russia-blackmailing-potential-defense-customers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:32:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:32:31","slug":"ukraine-claims-russia-blackmailing-potential-defense-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2018\/02\/02\/ukraine-claims-russia-blackmailing-potential-defense-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine claims Russia blackmailing potential defense customers"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/atype-video-jwplayer>
Ukroboronprom head Roman Romanov explains how the Ukraine-Russia conflict forced his country to rethink and redefine its defense strategy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

MOSCOW \u2014 Russian defense industry firms are resorting to dirty tactics to outcompete their Ukrainian counterparts on the international arms market, Sergii Siliusarenko, CEO of Ukrinmash, a state owned defense investment and export company in Ukraine, said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His remarks came after his firm secured a tender for a helicopter repair facility in Bangladesh, winning over a Russian bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Russian side has recently been resorting to tactics of, for instance, bombarding potential customers with letters demanding to exclude Ukrainian enterprises from tenders,\u201d Siliusarenko was quoted as saying in the statement, which was published by the Ukrainian arms export agency Ukroboronprom<\/a>. \u201cAllegedly, only Russia has the right to repair or modernize Soviet equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siliusarenko\u2019s remarks came with an announcement that Bangladesh had chosen his firm in a tender to build a repair facility for that nation\u2019s Soviet-built Mi-8\/Mi-1 helicopters<\/a>. During the Soviet-era, Ukraine was a major defense industrial center. Refurbishment of Soviet-built hardware sold to third-parties around the world is a major business for both Ukrainian and Russian firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Competition between the two for such contracts is understandably strong. But against the backdrop of conflict between Russia and Ukraine<\/a> over Crimea and eastern Ukraine, relations between the two nations have never been worse. And Siliusarenko says that Russia is playing dirty on the market, attempting to \u201cblackmail\u201d potential customers into buying Russian over Ukrainian services.<\/p>\n\n\n\t