US diplomats met with a representative from the Chechen rebels, which was later protested by the Russian government. On a related note, the government says that production of military equipment was up 15 percent over the previous year. Most of this was from exports ($4.4 billion last year.) The largest customers are India, China and the United Arab Emirates. Based on this kind of cash flow, Russia now plans to develop a new generation of weapons for air, land and sea forces by 2010.