Moscow (AFP) - Russia put off some supply fighter jets and missile defense systems S-300 to Syria because Damascus failed to pay them, the newspaper Kommersant said on Saturday. A total of 12 jets MiG-29M/M2 that Russia agreed to sell to Syria will not be awarded before the year 2016 to 2017, the daily said quoting unnamed sources in the company of Russia's state arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport. According to RIA Novosti news agency, although the deal was approved in 2007, shipments delayed by technical reasons and then postponed because Syria has only paid to Moscow 30 percent of what is owed to the jets, Kommersant said. Earlier media reports said six of the 12 MiG expected to be delivered by the end of this year. An agreement in 2010 to supply Damascus with missile defense systems S-300 was also stuck because because Syria has so far failed to provide a down payment, the report said. "Supply S-300 out of the problem until we see real money," the newspaper said citing an unnamed official in the military-industrial complex of Russia's cooperation. S-300 was initially expected to be delivered in July 2014, but delivery will be delayed until 2015 or 2016 unless the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad paid immediately, the report said.
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