[ RadSafe ] RE: Uranium Smuggled to Afghanistan from Russia : Ivanov

[Hansen, Richard]

Follow up to Previous Story: Uranium Smuggled to Afghanistan from Russia

Afghanistan denies sale of Russian uranium on black market

Tuesday February 15, 2005 (1423 PST)

KABUL, February 16 (Online): An official of the Afghan National Defence
Ministry denied claims by Russian defence minister, Mr Sergey Ivanov, who
had said that enriched Russian uranium have been sold on the Afghan black
markets. 
The Russian defence minister had recently made theses remarks at the session
of NATO defence ministers in Paris. 
The Russian defence minister had claimed that containers full of Russian
enriched uranium have been sold in Afghanistan's markets. 
Bakhtar Information Agency reported that Gen Mohammad Zaher Azimi, spokesman
of defence ministry, rejected these claims and added that the Afghan
security forces have not encountered such incidents. 
It is worth mentioning that the Russian defence minister has not made it
clear when the incident has taken place. 
End.
PakTribune
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=94114
accessed Feb 17, 2005
Pakistan News Service (c) PakTribune.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Gerry Blackwood [mailto:gpblackwood at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 3:31 PM
To: Rad Safe; Rad Safe
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Uranium Smuggled to Afghanistan from Russia : Ivanov

Uranium Smuggled to Afghanistan from Russia : Ivanov

   Pak Tribune 
   2/13/2005 
    
   Russia has disclosed that suspected uranium-containing boxes were
smuggled to Afghanistan. 

Russian Defence Minister Sergiev Ivanov conceded the uranium boxes had
Russian language written on them, which were smuggled to Kabul to malign
Moscow. He added that a probe was underway in the Russian Atomic Defence
Commission in this regard. 

According to BBC report, the minister told Russian TV channel that a
conspiracy was continuing to create suspicion about the security measures
for the Russian nuclear weapons and uranium. He claimed that they received
some information that boxes in the name of Russian enriched uranium were
being sold in black market in Afghanistan. According to him, these boxes
were fake. 

However, the minister did not say as to where they saw this material and
about any contact with Afghan government in this respect. 

He also expressed deep concern over the failure of the Afghan government and
world community to prevent drug trafficking in that country. He claimed that
most of the money earned from drug smuggling goes to terrorists.