Russian envoy to NATO slams US sanctions against state arms trading company
Interfax
Brussels, 24 October: Russia's permanent representative to NATO Dmitriy Rogozin believes that the US State Department's decision to impose sanctions against Rosoboronexport (Russian state arms trader) is politicized, and is proposing to Washington to find out who in the USA supplies spares for the Iranian Air Force.
"US policy in the area of control over arms supplies is not just a policy of double standards, it is cynical and even provocative," Rogozin told Interfax on Friday (24 October).
Rogozin said that the US decision to impose sanctions against Rosoboronexport "is a rather symbolic step for George Bush's outgoing administration, which shows that the US foreign policy suitcase has many hidden bottoms".
Rogozin noted that the USA believed it quite possible for itself to supply arms to unstable regimes, as well as to countries which on their own territory wage a war against national minorities.
"At the same time, Washington condones illegal arms sales by countries whose leaderships conduct a policy of US satellites. I mean, first of all, the unpleasant situation in connection with an investigation by a parliamentary commission of the Ukrainian Supreme Council into actions by President Yushchenko, who personally took the decision to sell offensive weapons to Georgia, taking them off combat duty of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," Rogozin said.
He also recalled events related to the seizure of the Faina ship (by pirates off the Somali coast), where - he says - one number of combat tanks is recorded in papers, while in reality their number on board the ship is nearly twice as large. "And all this also has to do with Mr Yushchenko, who is received in Washington as a favourite child of the outgoing administration," the permanent representative added.
Rogozin said that Washington for some reason did not consider such actions to be a violation of control over arms export. "But the actions of Rosoboronexport irritate Washington, although it cannot provide any evidence that Russia has really supplied banned military technologies to Iran," Rogozin stressed.
The permanent representative recalled that quite clear control over export of arms existed in Russia on the part of the Russian Security Council. "We shall never supply to neighbouring - but also to other countries technologies which could lead to the creation of weapons of mass destruction. This directly contradicts the common sense and the doctrine of Russia's national security, as well as the Russian foreign policy concept," Rogozin stressed.
He said that all the accusations, that are coming from the USA against the Russian state company, "are far from the truth; Moreover, they are quite provocative and offensive for Russia as a state."
Moreover, Rogozin pointed out to the fact that the Iranian Air Force is still using American-made aviation equipment. "Despite the fact that this equipment was produced as long ago as in the 1960s, it still flies," he noted.
The permanent representative stressed that at the same time it is impossible to fly without supplies of spares for these aircraft, including those of the Phantom.
"Therefore, the people who took the decision to impose sanctions against Rosoboronexport must finally take the log out of their own eye and look at who, under their own nose, from US territory, supplies spares and other equipment to the armed forces of Iran, which is almost enemy number one for Washington," Rogozin appealed.
He also expressed the hope that the new US administration, which would be formed following the election in November, would start treating such an important issue as control over export of sensitive military technologies more thoroughly and in a less politicized manner.
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