Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
April 4, 2005, Monday

ARMENIA’S DEFENSE MINISTRY FLATLY DENIED ACCUSATIONS OF BEING
INVOLVED IN SMUGGLING ARMS TO OTHER COUNTRIES

“All arms depots are under total control. The investigation has no
evidence that the weapons were taken to the USA or any other country
from Armenia,” Defense Minister Serzhik Sarkisyan stated. According
to Grachia Arutyunyan, senior deputy director of the National
Security Service, “not a single instance of weapons shortage has been
ascertained in the republic.” Documents prove, says Arutyunyan, that
“all kinds of weapons under discussion are intact in the
corresponding military units.” A group of criminals, involved in arms
smuggling and led by a citizen of Armenia, was detained in the USA
some time ago. According to U.S. Attorney in Manhattan David Kelley,
it was purchased “in Georgia, Armenia and some states of Eastern
Europe;” 18 persons have been charged on this case.

Source: Krasnaya Zvezda, March 31, 2005, p. 3

Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin