President Robert Mugabe has ploughed an estimated US$500m into the purchase of 10 new fighter jets and military vehicles from Russia...Read about it here.
Mad Bobby has been having trouble buying spare parts for his "air force" from Europe, and has not gotten much satisfaction from China, but Russia is coming through in the pinch. And what need has Zimbabwe for an Air Force? Well, for one thing it provides jobs for the madman's political cronies, and then there's this:
The Air Force of Zimbabwe has two bases in Manyame (near Harare) and Thornhill (Gweru) with personnel estimated at about 5 000. Currently, the Air Force has the Chengdu F-7 fighter jet, British-made Hawker Hunters and recently demonstrated newly-acquired Russian-made MiG-23 jets and Mi-35 helicopter gunships, armed for attacking targets on the ground, especially with automatic gunfire, but often also with rockets and/or missiles.Mad Bobby has wrecked the nation's economy, rendered hundreds of thousands homeless, systematically starved large segments of the populace, and brutally suppressed all rivals. Could he be worried? I would hope he would have reason to be, but the purchase is probably just a product of his paranoia.
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