I'm going to try to restrict myself to WOT-related items, this go-round...
- Chechen Terrorist Leader Aslan Maskhadov Buried in Nameless Grave:
Aslan Maskhadov's Family Originally Strived for the Delivery of the Terrorist's Body.
The body of the Chechen terrorist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, who was killed by the Russian special forces in Chechnya on March 8th, 2005, was finally buried on April 22nd. The burial ceremony was conducted according to the functioning law about terrorism. The former fugitive president of the Chechen republic was buried in a nameless grave. Furthermore, the place of the burial is not to be exposed either, Nikolai Shepel, deputy Prosecutor General of Russia in the Southern administrative district said.
At least that's one way to get around the "They Saved Maskhadov's Brain!" jokes. Unless, of course, that's the reason they're not giving the location of the grave to begin with...
- Russia Is Not Selling Short-Range Ballistic Missiles to Syria: The Middle East Countries Buy Arms Worth of $9 Billion From Various Suppliers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has forbidden the sale of Russian-made Iskander surface-to-surface missiles with a given range of 300 km. President Putin made his decision public after holding talks with Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Mr. Putin also said that Russia was not a leader in arms sales to the Middle East. The Middle East countries buy arms worth of $9 billion from various suppliers. The United States is the biggest arms dealer selling $6.8 billion worth of arms to the region. According to Mr. Putin, Russian arms sales to the Middle East fetch Russia less than $500 thousand.
I believe this is called the tu quoque argument. To some extent it's valid - the US is arguably selling advanced weapons to countries it shouldn't - but AFAIR it's never sold ballistic missiles to anyone. OTOH, historically the Russians have "sold" more stuff, on credit, that's turned out to be bad credit...
USA warned Russia against selling the Iskander missiles to Syria. Earlier this year U.S. Department of State said that America might impose sanctions on Russia if the latter should sell arms to a country that was deemed a sponsor of the international terrorism.
On the third hand, on the list of questionable arms sales Russia's been making, the Iskander missiles, while bad, are pretty far down the list from selling reactors to Iran. IMHO.
Meanwhile, Israel is more concerned about Russia's plans to supply the Strelets anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. The Russian Ministry of Defense says that the Israeli military received full information regarding tactical and technical specifications of those missiles. "First and foremost, the missiles are a close-range air defense system with a given range up to 5 km," said a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense last week while commenting on the sale of missiles to Syria. The source also said that a team of specialists from the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff had been dispatched to Israel a few months ago. The team provided all the tactical and technical specifications of the missiles to the Israeli military. The Russian specialists made it quite clear that by no means the missiles could be used as MANPAD (man-portable air defense system).
What basic reading I've been able to do around the web indicates that the Strelets "System" uses the SA-18 man-portable missile, but in a vehicle mount, analagous to the US "Avenger" and "Linebacker" systems. I don't know whether the specialists mentioned above are right or wrong. Quite possibly the missiles could be modified so that they need something on the vehicle-mounted launcher to work.
Russia earlier this year repeatedly confirmed its plans to sell the Strelets air defense systems to Syria while stressing the fact that the missiles could not be used for launching an attack against Israel. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that a future contract for the sale of Russian-made Strelets missiles to Syria would contain a special clause enabling the Russian side to carry out surprise inspections of the deployment sites.
How they would conduct "suprise inspections" puzzles me.
"The Strelets missiles have nothing to do with shoulder-held air defense systems," said Mr. Ivanov.
Well...
- Russia Is Coming Back to Iraq: Russian President Vladimir Putin Announced That Russian Specialists Would be Coming Back to Iraq.
They would help restore various sectors of the Iraqi economy including energy sector and social services. President Putin was speaking at a press conference in Cairo after his talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "We are going to enlarge our support to Iraq and the Iraqi people," said Mr. Putin.
President Putin said that despite the concerns about continuous escalation of violence in Iraq, Russia rates highly the results of last year"s parliamentary election in Iraq. According to Mr. Putin, Russia hopes that the election results could lay the groundwork for political settlement in Iraq.
Putin admitted that some foreign mercenaries were still operating in Iraq. Last year Russia ordered its specialists to leave Iraq after a few Russians were kidnapped and held as hostages. Mr. Putin put special emphasis on a pullout of foreign troops as one of the conditions required for the political settlement in Iraq. He said that several components should pave the way for political settlement in Iraq. Firstly, the government should address issues relating to fair and adequate participation of all ethnic and religious groups in public administration. Secondly, it is necessary to agree to fundamental principles on which a future constitution and political system of Iraq will be built. Thirdly, arrangements should be made with regard to "terms and a timetable for withdrawing the foreign troops from Iraq," said President Putin....
So basically he believes that any political settlement must be preceeded by a US withdrawl.
...The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that security risks in Iraq are still high to Russian citizens, said Mr. Rybinsky. "We would not consider possibilities for the return of our specialists to Iraq until the Russian Foreign Ministry declares that the situation in that country has changed for the better," said he...
Well, who's in charge, Putin or the Foreign Ministry?
The rest of the stuff remaining is more-or-less page 3, although there's a lot of foreign-relations stuff regarding the US and Russia, and an item about Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos as well. I have a meeting to go to... |