Angola: We Buy Any Jet - Why Is Angola Buying Hand-Me-Down
Military Equipment From Russia?  Despite being sold outdated and
sometimes substandard equipment, arms deals remain central to
Russian-African relations.  In many ways, the Angola of today -
with its booming natural-resource-driven economic growth and
relative stability - is a far cry from the war-torn and ravaged
country of the Cold War era. In that period, it was the subject
of a protracted and bloody civil war in which the country also
become the site of various geopolitical proxy wars involving the
likes of the Soviet Union, US, South Africa and Cuba.
International powers backed the freedom movements of its choice
and supplied it with arms and funding, intensifying and
perpetuating the brutal conflict.  By contrast, Angola today has
been at peace for over a decade, the militant groups have become
political parties, and the country is now one of the fastest-
growing economies in the world. However, some things, it seems,
never change.  Last month, D