Two Russian companies accused by the US State Department of illegally supplying sensitive military equipment to Iraq have called the allegation groundless and said they had nothing to do with the deliveries. It appears that Washington has in advance begun looking for a justification for the setbacks during missile strikes and the actions of its land forces in Iraq.
According to the Washington Post, US authorities have protested about the delivery of military equipment to Iraq by two Russian firms, the KBP (instrument-making design bureau) Tula and Aviakonversia, a Moscow-based company. KBP supplied guided antitank missiles and Aviakonversia allegedly provided electronic jamming equipment to Iraq, the newspaper said.
Washington accused the two companies of abetting Iraq and of illegal deliveries to Iraq of antitank missiles, night-vision goggles, and electronic jamming devices, used to suppress different kinds of radio systems, including the global positioning system equipment used in US aircraft and bombs.
Gazeta.Ru asked the director of the Russian LLC Aviakonversia Oleg Antonov to comment on the Washington Post report. He assured us that his firm had never supplied its products to Iraq, and said that the US had first brought charges against the company back in late September 2002.
''The Americans simply need to find a scapegoat, to explain their failures in Iraq. I would like to say that their allegations are groundless: their intelligence has so far failed to find chemical weapons there, and then suddenly they say that they have seen our [military] experts in Iraq. I do not know whom they have found there this time, but our representatives do not work there,'' Oleg Antonov said.
The head of Aviakonversia also said: ''The largest order for jammers to suppress the GPS gear was placed by the US – they used the device at test grounds for testing missiles and bombs in conditions of radio-interference. Of course, there were orders from other countries and from intermediaries, as well – the whole world buys that equipment.''
According to the arms expert, the jamming equipment helps to suppress the guidance signals of cruise missiles and so-called 'smart bombs'. This suggests that the US side has purposefully began to fan the flames of a scandal that has been smouldering since autumn because their missiles have been missing their targets, hitting civilians and their own troops, as well as neighbouring states.
Gazeta.Ru also contacted the Tula design bureau. Incidentally, KBP Tula is not a privately owned firm, as the US has claimed. The design bureau is a state-owned unitary enterprise established 76 years ago. KBP Tula's chief designer Viktor Babichev confirmed to Gazeta.Ru that the deputy to general director in charge of foreign economic ties Leonid Roshal and the head of one of the departments Alexei Gladkov were not in the office at present, but refuted reports they were in Iraq. Babichev told us that the bureau does not work with Iraq. ''If our colleagues were in Iraq,'' our interlocutor said, ''the Americans would not be there.'' Babichev confirmed that KPB Tula was included in a US black list last year. ''Only, that has no effect on us,'' he added.
''Arms deliveries of the design bureau are kept under tight control by the Russian government and are made strictly in accordance with the restrictions imposed by the United Nations,'' KBP Tula's deputy director Leonid Roshal told ITAR-TASS on Monday. According to his information, the KBP has not supplied armaments to Iraq and the other countries under UN sanctions for 10 years.
In comments for Interfax Iraqi Ambassador to Moscow Abbas Khalaf has also refuted the US media reports that several Russian companies have delivered military hardware to Baghdad. ''This is another American propaganda invention,'' the envoy said. ''Such deliveries are impossible in conditions of international economic sanctions against Iraq,'' he said.
Duma defence committee chairman, and formerly deputy defence minister, Andrei Kokoshin, too, denied the report. ''Russia has not delivered arms to Iraq. As for the so-called Russian arms deliveries, I am 100 per cent sure that there have been no deliveries officially authorized or conducted by official Russian institutions,'' he said following US State Department reports that accused Russia of such deliveries. ''If any arms were delivered, they are likely to have been Soviet-made,'' he said.
Deputy head of the Russian Cabinet apparatus Alexei Volin said later on Monday: ''Russia does not supply arms and military systems to Iraq and strictly adheres to all decisions of the UN Security Council.'' According to him, Russia ''stands, as it has always stood'' on a clear and unequivocal position that the deliveries of armaments must not lead to the escalation of any regional conflicts and must not violate any international sanctions.