U.S. Says Russia Sold Arms to Iran

Moscow Times ^ | Lyuba Pronina

[RussianConservative]

The United States on Tuesday accused Russia of supplying arms to "state sponsors of terrorism," chiefly Iran, and slapped sanctions on a Russian defense company.

The charges -- which mirror U.S. accusations concerning Baghdad after the Iraq war started -- appear to be an attempt to pressure Moscow over its cooperation with Tehran, analysts said.

"The United States government has determined that the government of Russia transferred lethal military equipment to countries determined by the secretary of state to be state sponsors of terrorism," the U.S. State Department said in a notice published in the Federal Register.

A State Department official said the decision -- made Aug. 25 but announced only Tuesday -- was connected to the sale of laser-guided Krasnopol-M artillery shells to Iran.

He said sanctions have been imposed for one year on KBP Tula, the maker of the shells. KBP Tula is a state-owned company that produces anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems.

The sanctions bar KBP Tula from doing business with the U.S. government and from buying U.S. defense equipment.

KBP Tula said Tuesday that the sanctions were meaningless since it has no business in the United States and suggested that they were a warning to Moscow.

"This may be a way to put political pressure on the country," KBP Tula deputy chief engineer Andrei Morozov said by telephone from Tula.

He said KBP Tula does not have any contracts with Iran and has never sent it any arms.

Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, agreed that Tuesday's charges carried political overtones. "This is some kind of political game," he said.

The accusations came a day before U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham was to arrive in Moscow to attend an international nonproliferation conference and less than two weeks before U.S. President George W. Bush hosts President Vladimir Putin at a summit at Camp David.

The timing may have something to do with U.S.-Russian differences over Iran's nuclear capacity and could be a message to Moscow that "the U.S. is very concerned about Iran and is willing to pick at anything," said Ivan Safranchuk, director of the Moscow office of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information.

In addition, with the gap closing on Moscow's and Washington's positions over the Iranian nuclear issue, the White House may be testing whether the Kremlin is willing to yield on other positions, such as on the sale of conventional weapons, Safranchuk said.

In 2000, Russia pulled out of a 1995 Gore-Chernomyrdin deal under which it agreed not to deliver weapons to Iran. Analysts predicted at the time that Iran might become Russia's third largest client after China and India, but aside from a batch of helicopters and armored personnel carriers, there have been no reports of arms deliveries.

Washington has been most concerned about Russia's role in helping Iran build its nuclear industry through the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. To address concerns that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, Russia has said it will freeze construction of the $1 billion plant and not supply any fuel unless Iran agrees to return all spent fuel.

The State Department official said Tuesday that the new charges were not connected to Iran's nuclear program or the Bush-Putin summit.

"I would not read into the timing," he said, speaking by telephone from Washington. "It is not linked to the upcoming summit and not designed to introduce any sour notes into the meeting."

He refused to say how the United States had learned about the Iran deal or when it was believed to have taken place. "We would not like to go into this. It is a sensitive issue," he said.

The finding means that Washington could have imposed sanctions on Russia, a move that would cut off all U.S. assistance to the country. The State Department, however, said it had decided this would not serve the national interests of the United States.

The United States directly accused the Russian government of supplying arms to "state sponsors of terrorism" last September and slapped sanctions on three Russian defense companies, including Tula KBP.

In 1999, the State Department placed sanctions on Tula KBP for the first time, after the company delivered Kornet anti-tank missiles to Syria.

In late March, Bush complained that Tula KBP and another Russian defense company had supplied Iraq with anti-tank guided missiles, GPS jammers and night-vision goggles in violation of UN sanctions. Moscow, along with Berlin and Paris, was fiercely opposed to a war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and the U.S. complaint was widely seen as an attempt to pressure Russia into softening its stance.

KBP Tula has the right to export arms independently from state-owned arms mediator Rosoboronexport. It delivered $350 million worth of arms last year

[RussianConservative]

Hmmm, this interesting, what this say then about sponsorer of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, PLO, KLA, Bosnia and Albania? Oh, those militants...my mistake. /sarcasm

[Pubbie]

Those Weapons could have come from former Warsaw Pact countries, or China, or India.

Russian weapons don't mean they were sold by Russian companies in Russia.

Anyway my opinion is that this article is just trying to cause trouble. The US and Russia are now working to put UN sanctions that will cripple the Iranian government, and will cause the government to collapse.

I recomend this article:

http://debka.com/article.php?aid=566

[At _War_With_Liberals]

"The United States on Tuesday accused...


"He said KBP Tula does not have any contracts with Iran and has never sent it any arms."

[At _War_With_Liberals]

They didn't come from Poland.

[Brian S]

Nuke 'em or at the very least, take Moscow and liberate the Russian people...

[Pubbie]

They could have come from Ukraine which also has a large arsenal of Soviet era weaponry.

Just because those shells were MANUFACTURED by a Russian company does not mean they were SOLD by that same company.

[RussianConservative]

Who you liberate Russian peoples from? Ehh, Russian free elected government? If you think you man enough, come join bones of Germans, French, Turks, Mongols, Luithians, Poles, Persians, Khazars, Chinese and Japanese...they all make Rodina more fertile.

[rbmillerjr]

I was talking to a Lithuanian guy the other day - he says they partied for 8 straight days when the Russians left...and he can remember standing in line for over 2 hours for a pack of chewing gum.

So, I guess we are all glad that Russia is zooming into the 21st Century...oh, your welcome for the tanks, artillery and planes to fight the Nazism, your former ally.

[Sender]

Many Americans think that because we don't want to sell any weapons to a particular country, everyone else should stop selling weapons to that country too. In reality, in a capitalist world, we cannot expect the world to fall in lockstep with every US policy. Conventional arms are a commodity; if the US is not selling then that's good news for the other arms producers. That's life; the world outside the US is not in Kansas anymore.

Nuclear arms are another matter, we should agree that societies who are on a jihad binge should not have them. It's for our survival. Russia as well as the US.

As far as conventional weapons go, our job is to have the best weapons. Better than Iran or North Korea, for sure. Not to diss Russian hardware, but they don't sell their best menu to the jihadis ;)

[RusIvan]

I was talking to a Lithuanian guy the other day - he says they partied for 8 straight days when the Russians left...===

:))).. Russians left? He riducule you for sure. It is very common game in Europe to make fun of american ignorancy. Europians beleive that americans so dumb and uneducated that they can believe at any BS if you tell it with serious face:).

FYI the third of population of Lithvinia is russian. Don't fall for that again:)).

[Pubbie]

"It is very common game in Europe to make fun of american ignorancy."

Yes, But Western Europe also LOVES the Democratic Party, and the Democrats are Entirely responsible for screwing up the US education system, which used to be fairly good.

[rbmillerjr]

No he was quite to the point and sincere.

Typical of a Russian to think that Lithuanians would love being under the despotic Russian thumb lol.

[carl in alaska]

"he says they partied for 8 straight days when the Russians left"

Not only that, but they played American music for 8 straight days, including "We're going to party like it's 1999" by Prince & the Revolution.

[carl in alaska]

If you're so well-educated, why can't you spell ignorance correctly? You're English needs some work my friend.

[RusIvan]

No he was quite to the point and sincere. ===

As I said the 20-30% of population of Lithvinia is russian by ethnicity. Why he didn't tell you that? So much on "russians left":)).

As him what was the official name of Lithvinia state in 16 century. It was "The princedom The Great Lithvinian and Russian". Thier law of the land was called "The Statut" and was written on ancient russian language by cyrrilic letters.

You surprised?:))) So much for "russian left" isn't it?

So russians stands in the begginning of history of Lithvinia TOGETHER with lithvinians themselves. I can tell you more but I think that history lesson ends for today:)).

[Spirited]

Suggest that you study the maps at this location to shed some light on Lithuania’s nationhood.

Please note that the 4th map shows the partition of Lithuania and gives the dates for the Russian “gains” and the Prussian gain.

It is the map of 1820 (the fifth map on the page) which evidences the legend “Grand Duchy of Lithuania within Russian Empire” of which the comrade spoke as the "beginning of Lithuania".

The maps of 1300 through 1600 show Lithuania as a very separate entity.

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/eceurope/haxlithuania.html

[Consort]

09/14/03: Putin hosts George Bush senior at Black Sea retreat

09/15/03: Bush to host Putin at retreat

[RussianConservative]

Nazi Germany never allie but aquantense of convience. Stalin first go to Britian and France to form triple blockade on Germany...but weaklings hope not hope peoples of Russia and Germany destroy each other and not bother them....Chamberlian. That why Stalin go in to buy time for self to prepare for own offensive against Hitler.

Oh and you welcome for 8 million Russian soldier who die to kill 6 million German soldier that US soldier not have to fight.

[RussianConservative]

So if Sudanese plays American music they becomes American friend? Oh and little Lithuania join EU, America's new rival...hehehe, poor stupid Baltics trades Moscow, which builds all their industry to keep them quite, for Brussel bureo who suck them dry and worse master in long run....heeheheh, they still now as irrelavent. If one wants Litho things, go to masters in Brussels and Berlin.