Moscow’s respected business daily Kommersant reported that Russia’s arms-trading monopoly Rosoboronexport has begun to fulfill an arms deal it secretly signed with Syria this year to sell five MiG-31E jet fighters, considered among the best in the world, and an additional unspecified number of the newest MiG-29M/M2 fighter-bombers.

The paper reported the total price to be about US$1 billion. MiG-31s were produced at the Sokol aviation factory in Nizhniy, Novgorod from 1981-94 (some 500 planes overall). Since production has been terminated, Syria, according to Kommersant, will get the jets from the Russian Defense Ministry stockpile after a refurbishing at Sokol.

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