Georgian uranium smuggling case throws Russia on defensive for anti-proliferation efforts

Thursday, January 25th 2007, 6:16 am

By: News On 6

MOSCOW (AP) _ Russia responded with silence Thursday after Georgia revealed a foiled effort by a Russian man to sell weapons-grade uranium, an episode that appeared to cast doubt on the nation's ability to halt the black market trade in nuclear materials.

The origin of 3.5 ounces of highly enriched uranium seized early last year in the former Soviet republic remains unclear, and some experts accused Georgia of trying to embarrass Russia at a time of strained relations between Moscow and Washington.

The Russian government said nothing publicly about the inquiry. An unidentified official at the nuclear agency Rosatom, quoted by the Interfax news agency, denied Georgian accusations that Russia was not cooperating with an investigation of the case.

U.S. and Georgian officials told The Associated Press that Georgian authorities, aided by the CIA, set up a sting operation that led to the arrest last year of a Russian citizen who tried to sell a small amount of uranium enriched to about 90 percent U-235, suitable for use in an atomic bomb.

Georgian officials said attempts to trace the source of the nuclear material, and to investigate the man's claim that he had access to larger quantities of highly enriched uranium, failed because Russia did not cooperate.

The Rosatom official was quoted as saying that Georgian authorities had given Russia too small a sample to determine its origin, and had refused to provide other information.

Georgian Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili identified the detained man as Oleg Khinsagov, a resident of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia, a region of Russia that borders Georgia.

Utiashvili said Georgian authorities had thwarted an earlier smuggling attempt also involving a small amount of highly enriched uranium in 2003, but gave no further details.

Russia's Federal Security Service, Interior Ministry and Rosatom did not respond to requests for comment.

Officials from Rosatom and the Federal Security Service attended an early interrogation of the suspect, and Russian authorities were given a small sample of the nuclear material, the Rosatom official said, according to Interfax. But Georgia offered no further cooperation, the unidentified official was quoted as saying.

The account appeared to be aimed at deflecting accusations that Moscow has not kept its nuclear materials locked up, and has not cooperated fully in efforts to halt trade in these materials. Russia says it is working actively in both areas with other nations, including the United States.

Alexander Pikayev, a Moscow-based defense analyst who is co-chairman of the Committee of Scientists for Global Security, said there have been thefts of nuclear material from Russian facilities in the past.

``If this uranium did come from Russia, the Russian authorities need to take this problem very seriously,'' he said. ``There is work going on in this direction but this incident shows that all is not well.''

Russia retains a sprawling nuclear weapons production complex and large stocks of weapons-grade fissile material left over from the Soviet era.

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S. non-governmental organization devoted to nonproliferation issues, Russia now has between 735 and 1,365 metric tons of weapons grade-equivalent highly enriched uranium and between 106 and 156 tons of military-use plutonium.

In a 2006 report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said there were 16 confirmed incidents of trafficking in highly enriched uranium or plutonium globally from 1993 to 2005. In seven cases, the nuclear material was thought to originate in Russia or a former Soviet state.

The U.S. and Russia have worked with other former Soviet states _ including Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan _ to improve security for these stockpiles, but they have not been eliminated.

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced last month it had shipped almost 590 pounds of highly enriched uranium from a former East German research reactor to what are regarded as secure facilities in Russia.

A U.S.-financed program has helped increase security at many Russian weapons facilities with the installation of closed-circuit cameras and other safeguards. However, the program has seen regular disputes between the two countries, independent military expert Pavel Felgenhauer said. Russia has allowed the U.S. access to nuclear research facilities, but has kept some weapons manufacturing sites off-limits, he said.

The smuggling incident is not the first for the poor, former Soviet republic of Georgia whose breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have had de facto independence since the early 1990s. In both places, weapons, alcohol and other illicit and contraband goods are trafficked, sometimes openly.

In 1993, up to 4.4 pounds of highly enriched uranium vanished from a nuclear research facility in Abkhazia, according to Georgian officials and foreign experts.

In Washington, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said he disclosed the story of last year's thwarted uranium sale out of frustration with Russia's response and to illustrate the dangers of a breakdown in security cooperation in the region.

Russian ties with Georgia have soured badly. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has sought to decrease Russian influence and move closer to the West, and Tbilisi regularly protests Russian support for separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

According to Merabishvili, a Georgian undercover agent working in Georgia's South Ossetia made contact with the Russian seller in the Russian region of North Ossetia.

After the Russian offered to sell the sample, the agent rebuffed requests that the sale take place in North Ossetia, insisting he come to Tbilisi, Georgia's capital. At a meeting there, the man pulled a plastic bag containing the metal from his pocket.

The man was arrested and sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison on smuggling charges. Three Georgians tried as accomplices were sentenced on lesser charges.

Uranium is more or less harmless to carry around because, like plutonium and polonium, it is an alpha-emitting radioactive material that does not penetrate the skin _ though it will irradiate internal organs if ingested.

The radioactive emissions of highly enriched uranium are so low that detectors often fail to pick them up if they are contained in a simple lead container. While highly enriched uranium is not normally handled casually, research laboratories do not use the same precautions in dealing with it that they employ with other radioactive materials.

Anton Khlopkov, deputy director of Moscow's PIR Center, which specializes in nonproliferation issues, noted that the quantity seized was reported to be small _ a fraction of what was needed to make a nuclear weapon. He also said it was not certain if it came from Russia.

``Why was this information released now? It looks like an attempt, by Georgia or the United States, to build up an image of Russia as a nuclear market,'' Khlopkov said. ``Georgia wants to get political capital out of this.''