The Russian side refused to provide Turkey with access to the “operating system” of the S-400 missile complexes recently acquired by the Ottoman country, an anonymous source told the newspaper Gazeta.ru. “We are not going to deliver the electronic codes and the ‘stuffing’ of the S-400s to Turkey. As agreed, technical maintenance will be carried out by Russia,” he said. He added that the Russian-made operating systems will also be installed by the Russian side.
He emphasized that the Turks “insisted that we give them passwords and control [of systems], but we refuse to do so.” Sales success: countries line up to buy the Russian S-400 On September 12, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement for the supply of S-400 Triumf systems. Turkey justifies its interest in these Russian systems for the desire to ensure their national security. According to the representative of the Secretariat for the Turkish Defense Industry (SSM), Ismail Demir, supplies are expected to start in two years.
Turkey became the first NATO member country to acquire these Russian systems. According to Tayen Ildem, an Alliance adviser on issues of public diplomacy, the Ankara-NATO union remains in force despite the agreement signed between Turkey and Russia. The former chief of the Russian Strategic Missile Troops, Victor Esin, told Gazeta.ru that Moscow’s decision to limit Turkey’s access to S-400 electronics is “a practice normal”. “When two countries sign an agreement on the supply of arms, the buyer has no right to dismantle these systems on their own. He agrees not to deliver the systems to a third party, not to change them and not dismantle them,” he said.
