ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Russia's basic motivation in exporting conventional arms and reviews the evolving legal basis and decision-making mechanism as a tool intended to control this process of transfers consistent with national interests and international obligations. In order to prognosticate Russia's responses to possible arms control initiatives, it is important to provide insight into the inner workings of the mechanism that focuses on key government departments and agencies as well as lobbying groups and other actors that tend to promote their own interpretation of national interests. This is particularly relevant for Russia, whose economic situation is still bleak and interagency coordination inherently weak.
