The government of Thailand has agreed to a secret $500 million deal to buy Russian fighter jets and helicopters for the Royal Thai Air Force, the Bangkok Post reported citing Russian news agencies on Monday.

The reports made no mention of the Thai government’s claim at home that this is to be a barter deal. Premier Thaksin Shinawatra also has never mentioned helicopters before, although he confirmed there might be a deal to obtain the 12 Sukhol-30 fighter jets, Thai media said.

“This is good news for Russia, we haven’t sold a single cartridge to Thailand,” enthused Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, in comments for the Moscow Times Monday. “It also means that Russia has taken over the region — we have fighter jets in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and now Thailand.”

The Moscow media report said the deal is preliminary and was signed last week in Kuala Lumpur when President Vladimir Putin and Thaksin were both at the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur. It said Russia has signed a preliminary agreement to sell $500 million worth of military aircraft to Thailand, and added it was “the first such deal with the traditional U.S. arms client.”

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