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July 21, 2021A street cleaner in an apartment building in Nizhny Novgorod, a city in central European Russia on the Volga River, found a Russian-made PZRK 9P39 «Igla» (“Needle”) portable anti-aircraft missile system in a garbage can.
The man noticed a green metal tube that looked like a military weapon and immediately called the Civil Defense and the police.
The suspicious object was seized and turned out to be a launch tube for a portable air defense system.
It contained no explosives, so it posed no danger to others.
Law enforcement officers are investigating how it ended up on the landfill in the city courtyard. "Igla" was in the possession of the Soviet army since 1981 and later passed to the Russian army. Since 1994 it has been exported to 30 foreign states, including some NATO member states: Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia. The official price of a suit that includes launch pad, targeting system and 10 missiles ranges from 1.6 to 1.8 million dollars.