Ruslan Pukhov Quotations

In the coming years, Algeria will account for 20 percent of Russian's arms exports, while China and India will plummet from 70 percent to 50 percent.

There is no close combat. They learned their lessons after the first campaign three years ago.

They have generally 99 percent Soviet- and Russian-made equipment, and they have all necessary equipment to make effective damage to federal troops and to fight them during a long period of time: Land mines, small and light weapons, air-to-air missiles.

There are lots of women working in the army, lots of construction troops, railway troops, you name it. And the combat troops, well-equipped and well-trained, there are less than 100,000.

Algeria was Russia's traditional arms client in Soviet times, but after the breakup it switched to Ukraine and Belarus mainly, buying Su-27s and MiG-29s. This contract will be Russia's triumphant return to North Africa.