SINGAPORE — Russian defense companies have vanished from major airshows in Asia, which experts say reflects the country’s shrinking and increasingly concentrated arms-export industry.
For the second consecutive year, Russian manufacturers were absent from the roster of attendees at the Singapore Airshow, the largest aerospace exhibition in Asia, which runs from Feb. 3-8.
Moscow previously had a much larger presence at the event, even launching joint exhibition pavilions at the 2020 show for Russian Helicopters and United Aircraft Corporation, which was attended by a range of officials. The country also used to showcase several aircraft models.
“What we are seeing is not a strategic pivot away from Asia, but a forced reallocation under severe structural constraints,” said Francesco Schiavi, research fellow at the Middle East Institute Switzerland. “Russia’s absence from these key shows reflects the shrinking, regionalized and increased concentration of its arms-export profile that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.”
Russia’s arms exports to Asian customers peaked from around 2005 to 2011. During this period, it won major contracts with India and China. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2025, Beijing accounted for 60% of all Russian deliveries of major weapons.
A reminiscence of this past at this year’s airshow is the modified Sukhoi Su-30 MKM jets that the Malaysian Air Force flew during an aerial performance here. A Russian delegation led by the Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu did visit Myanmar this week to sign a military cooperation agreement.
Over the last year, Russian arms makers have increasingly courted potential Middle East customers, especially in the Gulf region. This has, in part, translated to reinforcing their presence at defense fairs, as was the case at the IDEX and NAVDEX exhibitions in February 2025 in Abu Dhabi.
The country had over a dozen exhibitors that afforded a prominent display of weaponry and pitched upgraded variants of their weapons.
Schiavi added that Moscow’s outreach to the Middle East and Africa is “selective and compensatory,” citing Algeria’s Su-57 purchase and continued engagement with Mali, eastern Libya and Ethiopia as examples.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said the national arms industry earned more than $15 billion in export revenues last year; however, the expert said that this figure has been widely questioned by Western analysts.
It is important to note that since February 2022, Moscow has not published official defense export information, rendering the verification process more challenging.
Russia also flew some of its military equipment to Saudi Arabia weeks ahead of the World Defense Show taking place next week. In an interview with the state news media TASS, the director general of Rosoboronexport said that the country will unveil new battle-tested systems at the event.
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.
