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Old 27th Nov 2017, 20:24
  #21 (permalink)  
etudiant
 
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Originally Posted by KenV
There appears to be some confusion. There's zero doubt that Russia, the US, the UK, France, Germany, China, and basically any nation that exports military gear could and likely would withdraw support of those weapons under certain political conditions. The REAL question is whether those "conditions" are more likely to arise for the Finns from the Americans, the Europeans, or the Russians. The answer is obvious.

And this ignores the difficulty Russian industry has in providing through life support to their own armed forces in the first place. Never mind to export customers.
Actually, export customers provide real money, sometimes better than the national government.
Obviously that can lead to more abuse, requiring expensive overhauls too often a simple example. So careful contracts are essential unless one has ample political clout.
That said, Finland was a Grand Duchy of Russia until 1917, so there are lots of very long term relationships. Finland has prospered as a bridge between Russia and the west, it has no experience as an armed outpost aimed at Russia, not even during the coldest days of the cold war.
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