EurasiaNet, NY
Jan 28 2007
GEORGIA: URANIUM CASE UNDERSCORES NUKE SAFETY FEARS
Claire Bigg 1/28/07
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL
Moscow and Tbilisi have traded harsh words after Georgia revealed it
had arrested a Russian man last year trying to sell weapons-grade
uranium.
The incident marks a new low in already strained Russian-Georgian
relations and raises fresh fears worldwide that some of Russia’s huge
nuclear stockpiles could fall into terrorist hands.
Last February in Tbilisi, a Georgian undercover agent, aided by the
CIA, posed as a rich foreign buyer interested in purchasing
weapons-grade uranium for a Muslim man from "a serious organization."
The mission: seize Oleg Khinsagov, a Russian man trying to sell a
small amount of highly enriched uranium, and confiscate his
merchandise.
The operation was a success and Khinsagov was sentenced to 8 and 1/2
years in prison.
Although the purity of the uranium seized is ideal for making nuclear
weapons, the quantity is too small. A nuclear bomb requires at least
15 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.
Both the trial and the incident itself were kept secret until
Thursday (January 26), when Georgian Interior Minister Vano
Merabishvili, who was visiting Washington this week, revealed the
case in comments published by U.S. media.
Reasons For Disclosure
So why is Tbilisi making the incident public now, almost one year
after it occurred?
Nikoloz Rurua, the deputy chairman of the Georgian parliament’s
Committee for Defense and Security, told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service
that there had been "a request by our American colleagues — not to
publicize this information due to certain considerations related to
the operation."
"I cannot say more about this. It was their request, and we complied
with it. This applied to a particular period of time, which has now
passed, and we — the country on whose soil this legal violation took
place — naturally made this information public," Rurua said.
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, however, had a
different story. He said he was revealing the case out of frustration
with Russia’s lack of cooperation in the investigation that followed
the arrest.
According to him, Russia hampered Georgia’s attempts to determine
whether Khinsagov had access to larger quantities of uranium, as he
had boasted prior to his detention.
New Russia-Georgia Spat
Russian authorities confirmed the arrest, but struck back by saying
Georgia prevented Russia from identifying the substance’s country of
origin by presenting a sample too small to work with. He accused
Georgia of failing to provide a larger sample despite repeated
requests.
The Khinsagov case has also revived tensions over Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, the two Georgian separatist republics backed by Moscow.
Merabishvili said the Russian smuggler came to Georgia’s attention
during an investigation into what he called extensive smuggling
networks in and around the breakaway border regions.
The incident has once again prompted calls in Georgia for
international observer missions in both regions, a proposal that
Tbilisi has been pushing in past months.
"Any uncontrolled territory represents dangers not only for the
country within which this territory lies, but for the international
community as a whole,” deputy Rurua said. "We believe this is a
crucial reason for the international community to take the resolution
of problems in the Tskhinvali region and in Abkhazia seriously."
Nuclear Safety Fears
The international community, however, seems more concerned about how
100 grams of nuclear-bomb grade uranium fell into the hands of a
50-year-old Russian trader, who specialized in fish and sausages.
Speaking today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Muhammad el-Baradei
reiterated the urgency of joining forces in preventing rogue states
from obtaining material for nuclear weapons.
The incident is reminiscent of a similar case in 2003, when Georgian
border guards caught an Armenian man with about 170 grams of highly
enriched uranium. According to Georgia, the man said the uranium came
from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, home to a major nuclear
complex.
A number of experts say Khinsagov, too, is likely to have obtained
uranium in Russia, where a nuclear black market emerged from the
chaos that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Efforts To Be Safe
But Ivan Safranchuk, who heads the Moscow office of the U.S.-based
Center for Defense Information, says getting hold of highly enriched
uranium in Russia is not that easy.
"Over the past nine years, serious efforts have been made to improve
the system of physical protection and security of nuclear facilities,
both military and civilian. So in my opinion, obtaining nuclear
substances in Russia is extremely difficult. Today, if I were a
terrorist seeking nuclear substances, I would go to Pakistan, not
Russia," Safranchuk says.
Former Soviet countries have indeed taken steps towards boosting
nuclear security, often financed by the West.
Russia, in particular, says it is actively cooperating with other
nations, including the United States, to combat nuclear
proliferation.
But Vladimir Chuprov, the chief nuclear expert at Greenpeace’s
Russian office, says security at Russian nuclear facilities remains
deplorable.
"In Russia, the physical defense and security of radioactive material
doesn’t meet the required standards. In 2002, a group of Greenpeace
activists, together with journalists and a State Duma deputy, entered
without difficulties the territory of the national stockpile of
wasted nuclear fuel, climbed on the roof of the stockpile’s building
complex, shot photographs and videos, and quietly left. Nine months
later, the Federal Security Service repeated the same experience.
Nothing had changed," Chuprov says.
According to Chuprov, poor working conditions and rampant corruption
in Russia’s post-Soviet nuclear sector continue to provide a fertile
breeding ground for nuclear contraband.
The Khinsagov case is likely to put the state of Russia’s sprawling
nuclear stockpiles back into the spotlight once again.