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Red Army's war-winning weapons are up for sale
(Filed: 21/01/2005)
Russia is to sell thousands of Second World War tanks, machineguns and cannons in an attempt to raise funds and remind the world of its pivotal role in defeating Hitler.
The Kremlin hopes that they will be bought by museums and enthusiasts as interest in vintage weaponry peaks during the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, a landmark that will be celebrated with great fanfare in Russia.
The Russian state arms dealer, Rosoboronexport, has sold a few vintage weapons piecemeal since the late 1990s but now it has launched a serious sales campaign.
The hardware has been stored in warehouses even though most of it was decommissioned decades ago.
The company is tempting collectors with a selection of weapons that includes Maksim machineguns, 76mm ZiS-3 field guns, PPSH sub-machineguns and T-34 tanks, the backbone of the armoured columns that drove the German army out the Soviet Union in 1944.
For the more ambitious there are T-54 tanks, built in the immediate post-war period and used to defeat the Hungarian uprising in 1956, and even Soviet-era submarines.
Rosoboronexport said it took the decision to market the weapons because of growing interest abroad.
"In many battles during the Second World War, home weapons won a victory many times over those of the fascist Wehrmacht, surpassing them in quality and reliability, combat effectiveness and simplicity in use," the company boasts.
"After 60 years, demand for them is still growing among foreign museums, military-technical associations, state and private collections."
While it has not yet published a price list, it is likely to sell rifles and pistols for a few hundred pounds each. Tanks in good working order are expected to cost upwards of £10,000. Alexander Ouzhanov, a Rosoboronexport spokesman, said: "There are two main aspects to this trade. One has to do with the country's image. The second is commercial."
Marat Kenzhetayev, a researcher with the Centre for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies, said: "The move is probably more to do with PR than making serious money. Russia's arms exports in 2004 came to $5.6 billion (£2.98 billion). Sales of the vintage arms sales might make, at best, a few million dollars. No collector will buy tanks by the hundreds or thousands.
"As regards prices, they will be much cheaper than their modern equivalents.
"Unfortunately, it's not like the market in antique furniture."
The company is also selling German and Allied equipment captured during the war or received as part of the Lend Lease programme.
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