RUSSIA GUILTY but lives in denial! - ‘US has no moral right to lecture Russia on weapons’

Russia’s state-owned defense export company, responding to claims made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said it is not supplying attack helicopters to Syria, while a Russian expert said the US has no moral authority to lecture to Russia.

The sole intermediary agency for Russia's export and import of defense-related products, Rosoboronexport, refusing to comment directly on the statement made by Hillary Clinton, did offer that the company does not supply military equipment to foreign countries that fall under international sanctions.

"Rosoboronexport as a state intermediary of the Russian Federation does not supply to foreign countries weapons and military equipment in breach of the UN Security Council requirements and other international agreements," an official representative of Rosoboronexport told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.

The source would not comment on whether helicopters have or have not been shipped to Syria, which is witnessing a sharp spike in hostilities between pro-government and opposition forces. The conflict has helped to fuel heated rhetoric between Russia and the United States as to which side of the internal strife is the main perpetrator of the violence.

While Washington seems to be throwing its weight behind the Syrian political opposition, Moscow, which has refused to take sides in the crisis, is calling for both sides to abide to the conditions set down by the Kofi Annan ceasefire plan.

Set out by former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, the plan calls for both sides to immediately lay down their arms.

Meanwhile, Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director of the Center for Strategies and Technologies Analysis, said the US has no moral right to lecture Russia on weapons supply to Syria, adding that the helicopters Clinton was talking about likely underwent maintenance in Russia.

"Even if we assume that combat helicopters are now indeed being passed to Syria, this action would not at all contradict the current norms of international law dealing with weapons trade," Makiyenko told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.

The Russian analyst went on to say that the United States, which provides military weapons to many global hot spots, has no right to lecture Russia on the subject.

The US "sells huge amounts of weapons to the repressive Saudi regime, which took part in the tough suppression of peaceful Shiite protests against the despotic regime in Bahrain," Makiyanko said. "Systematic suppression of the opposition takes place in Saudi Arabia. The US has no moral right to lecture Russia on who should get weapons and who should not."

During her public appearance with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Clinton said the supply of helicopters will lead to a sharp escalation of the conflict in Syria.

Meanwhile, "Russia has recently refrained from supplying weapons to Syria that could play a decisive role in the authorities' fight against illegal armed groups, which are financed and supported from abroad," he said.

The Russian arms expert went on to say that Clinton's comments are part of a broader western "media war" being waged against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"If the statements made by State Secretary Hillary Clinton have any relation to reality, she most likely meant the supply f helicopters that underwent maintenance in Russia. In general, the US state secretary's invectives are in line with the broad media war waged in the West against Bashar Assad's regime," Makiyenko said.