Venezuela took delivery of 1,800 Russian-made shoulder-launched air-to-air missiles of the Igla-S type, news agencies reported with reference to The Washington Post. Reportedly, Venezuela intends to raise its Igla missiles arsenal to 2,400 units.

The missiles were delivered in 2009, according to the data that has recently been shared by the Russian Federation with United Nation’s dedicated structures. Information about these and other sales is published in the UN register of conventional weapons on annual basis, using data that UN members benevolently share.

According to UN-published reports, in 2006-2008 timeframe Russia sold Venezuela a total of 472 missiles, along with 44 strike helicopters and 24 fighter aircraft. Oil sales were main source of funding.

In the past five years Venezuela purchased Russian weapons for five billion US dollars. Deliveries included 24 Sukhoi Su-30MKV twin seat multirole fighters and a hundred thousand Kalashnikov assault rifles of the most recent 100 series. In 2009 Moscow opened US dollar 2.2 billion credit for Caracas, to support sales of 92 T-72 main battle tanks and unspecified number of Smerch multiply launch rocket systems, each with 12 launching tubes of 300-mm caliber.

Moscow and Caracas have long been negotiating on sale of Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighters, with Venezuela seen as most probable first export customer for this aircraft.