RUSSIA ANTICIPATES INCREASED ARMS EXPORTS TO TURKEY.

The Russian minister for foreign economic relations said yesterday that Moscow was optimistic about boosting its arms exports to Turkey. Oleg Davydov, who is also first deputy chairman of the Coordinating Council for Russia’s Military-Technical Policy, said that the value of arms exports to Turkey this year already totaled $121 million and estimated that the amount could rise to $300 million. Deliveries to Turkey were worth $25.7 million in 1993, $15.4 million in 1994, and $70 million in 1995, he said. He also identified Turkey as the first NATO country whose market had been successfully penetrated by Russia. The growing volume of the arms trade between Russia and Turkey reflects a broader anomaly in their relations: namely, that increasingly lucrative business dealings between the two have developed even as Russia and Turkey have emerged as major competitors for influence in the Caucasus and elsewhere.

German, U.S. Military Assistance Takes Shape.