Posted on 10/01/2001 7:40:39 AM PDT by CommiesOut
Iraq giving "priority" to trade with Russia and Syria, minister says
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 30, 2001
Text of report by Iraqi radio on 30 September
Trade Minister Dr Muhammad Mahdi Salih said Russia comes first among 75 countries with which Iraq has trade ties. During his meeting with a Russian press delegation which is currently visiting Iraq, the minister said Russian exports to Iraq, within the oil-for-food programme, so far total 4.204bn dollars. He said Iraq gave priority to Russia and Syria in its foreign trade ties, based on the instructions of President Saddam Husayn, in view of their rejection of the stupid sanctions [reference to the smart sanctions] draft.
The trade minister added that relations between the two countries will witness great development in the future. The two countries have agreed on a long-term economic cooperation programme, according to which Russian companies will implement projects worth approximately 40bn dollars.
The meeting was attended by Dr Abd-al-Razzaq al-Hashimi, head of the Friendship, Peace and Solidarity Organization, and a number of officials at the Trade Ministry.
Source: Republic of Iraq Radio, Baghdad, in Arabic 1030 gmt 30 Sep 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
Russia, Iraq in $40bn deal
Baghdad - Iraq said on Sunday that Russian companies had won deals worth US$40 billion to execute scores of future oil and infrastructure projects.
It was not immediately clear if any of the projects could go ahead before the United Nations lifts tough trade sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Saleh, quoted by the official Iraqi news agency INA, said Russian companies would carry out 72 projects, mostly in the oil sector, under a long-term protocol.
"Iraq and Russia have agreed on a long-term economic co-operation programme under which Russian companies will implement projects worth $40 billion in Iraq," Saleh was quoted as telling a visiting Russian delegation.
He said 17 of the projects were in oil and gas, 15 in industry, 14 in transport and communications, 11 in agriculture and irrigation, six in petrochemicals, six in electricity and three in health. He did not say when work would start.
UN sanctions bar foreign companies from investing in Iraq's oil sector and from selling it equipment outside the framework of an oil-for-food deal with the United Nations.
The deal allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicine and humanitarian goods under strict United Nations monitoring.
Iraq has given Russian firms priority in winning business under the oil-for-food deal as a reward for Moscow's rejection of a US-British proposal to revamp the 11-year-old sanctions.
Moscow had threatened to use a veto against a US-British so-called "smart sanctions" resolution in June, prompting London and Washington to shelve it and allowing the oil-for-food programme to be extended for five months unchanged.
Saleh said Russia had won $4.4 billion of contracts with Iraq since the oil-for-food deal began in December 1996.
Russian companies are already the largest lifters of Iraqi crude. While Western oil majors are eyeing Iraq's reserves - the second largest in the world - Russian firms, armed with cash from high oil prices and Moscow's friendship with Baghdad, are jostling for a toehold before foreign rivals move in.
Source:REUTERS
It's disgusting how some people try to slander our most trusted friends, partners and allies.
Tony
Other then that, why Russia has absolutely no grounds to stand on compared to the moral US.
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MOSCOW. Oct 1 (Interfax) - Another prisoner has escaped from Butyrki remand center No. 2 in Moscow. An inmate named Vinogradov managed to leave the visiting area somehow at about 11 a.m. on Monday, showed a Penitentiary Division pass to the guard at the exit and left the prison unchallenged. 01 OCT 2001 08:13:14 |
Text of report in English by Russian AVN Military News Agency web site
Moscow, 1 October: The Raduga machine-building design bureau completed ground tests of the new H-59MK air-to-surface missile, a spokesman for the design bureau told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday [1 October].
H-59MK is made on the basis of the H-59M missile. An active radar homing warhead is installed in the new weapon instead of the television-guided homing system installed in H-59M. The missile's range of operation grew from 155 km to 285 km thanks to replacement of the launch acceleration unit with a special fuel tank. H-59MK has the subsonic speed of flight, but it is distinguished for high combat efficiency comparable to more expensive supersonic missiles. Its kill probability is 0.90 to 0.96 if used against cruisers or destroyers and 0.70 to 0.93 if used against small-size targets. One or two missiles are needed to eliminate a cruiser or a destroyer. The warhead's weight is 320 kg.
The H-59MK missile can be used on practically all modern Russian fighters including those supplied to foreign customers.
Source: AVN Military News Agency web site, Moscow, in English 0742 gmt 1 Oct 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
Text of report in English by Iranian news agency IRNA
Tehran, 1 October: Minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani left Tehran for Moscow on a four-day official visit at the head of a high-ranking defence delegation.
The visit comes after an invitation was extended to Shamkhami from his Russian counterpart Sergey Ivanov. Shamkhani is to hold important talks with the security, defence and political officials of Russia during his stay in Moscow.
In a pre-departure interview with reporters, the minister said the Iran-Russia defence and security cooperation is within the framework of the international agreements and pose no threat to other states.
Source: IRNA news agency, Tehran, in English 1332 gmt 1 Oct 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
No, actually you do that through a proxy war, like you have been doing this whole time in Chechnya, Serbia, Macedonia.
Why is it that everyone percieves Russia to be the greatest threat. Russia's defence budget is pathetic. Their defence forces are seriously cash strapped, their army is essentially falling apart. Now look at the US... $343 BILLION on defence. Most advanced army in the world (In terms of what they have available for use). Largest army in the world (I think) etc... And you claim that the US has to fear Russia. Its actaully Russia that has to fear the US.
Lets look at something else. The USSR falls apart and NATO still remains. what for? To terrorise the Balkans? To expand right up to Russia's doorstep? And you expect them to have any faith in NATO or the US..... How would you feel if the USSR didn't fall apart, but instead it was NATO that fel apart, and Mexico joined the USSR? Would you be happy? would you have faith in the USSR's claimed intentions?
I can't beleive some of the statements that people make. And don't think that its just me that thinks this way. I saw on TV the other day the former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, saying pretty much the same thing. In essence he said that the world had an opportunity with the end of the Cold War, to engage Russia as a friend and not an adversary, but instead we (the west) went on to basically threaten Russia by expanding NATO to its borders. And who was he basically blaming for this..... The US.....
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