FSB worries about osmium

Kazakh Chechens are looking for clients from the Middle East

The head of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, recently held a meeting at which, as the Vremya Novostei newspaper learned, the increasing attempts to commercially sell components of nuclear and chemical weapons in Russia and the CIS were discussed. Incidents of this kind were mentioned in the reports of Mr. Patrushev himself and his deputy, head of the department for the protection of the constitutional order and the fight against terrorism, Alexander Zhdankov. According to the newspaper’s source in the FSB, the discussion was, in particular, about the “osmium case.”

Since January 2002, five Chechens have been in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, detained in one of the Moscow banks with an ampoule containing about 6 grams of a rare earth metal - the isotope osmium-187. This non-radioactive metal itself can be used as a catalyst for chemical reactions to release isotopes of plutonium and uranium, which are used in the production of nuclear weapons. In addition, osmium-187 is a powerful amplifier of radioactive radiation. When sold legally (all such transactions with it on the world market are strictly controlled), the cost of one gram of osmium-187 is about 160 thousand dollars.

As part of an investigation under Article 191 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“illegal trafficking in precious metals”), the FSB established that the detainees were from northeastern Kazakhstan, where a powerful Chechen diaspora has existed since the time of Stalin’s expulsion. Laboratory analysis of the seized osmium-187 showed that the isotope was produced at one of the eight enrichment plants of Kazakhmys OJSC in the Dzhezkazgan region.

“It is unknown whether we will be able to find the remaining links in the chain. The detainees were couriers who may not have known at all what exactly they were carrying,” an FSB officer who took part in the meeting told the Vremya Novostei newspaper. However, he claims, according to the working version of the investigation, the customers of osmium-187 in Moscow were people from the circle of the former Deputy Prime Minister of Ichkeria, now businessman Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev. Having convinced themselves of the quality of the isotope produced in Kazakhstan, they hoped to agree on the delivery of a larger shipment from Kazakhstan to Baku, where Mr. Nukhaev lives. After this, the acquired osmium-187 was to be resold to one of the states in the Middle East, presumably to Iraq.

The Kazakhmys Corporation, which owns 12 mines in Kazakhstan, has previously been involved in illegal osmium transactions in Russia. Thus, it was from the Kazakh enterprise that the attackers, detained in May 2000 by the Berd interdistrict department of the Organized Crime Control Department of the Novosibirsk region, took out osmium-187 (about a gram). In August 2001, a citizen of Kazakhstan was detained with 20 grams of osmium-187 in Novosibirsk. Akezhan Kazhegeldin (prime minister of the country in 1994-1997) back in 1999, during a visit to the United States, announced possible illegal supplies of nuclear weapons components from the territory of Kazakhstan, the only producer of osmium-187 in the CIS.

The Vremya Novostey newspaper obtained a certificate prepared by the analytical center of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. It follows from it that in July 2002, a group of sellers of “radioactive materials” from Kazakhstan appeared in Chechnya with the goal of reaching potential buyers from among “the most influential Mujahideen from the so-called Khattab group.” Although we could not talk about osmium (as already noted, this metal itself is non-radioactive), it is characteristic that the certificate indicates Dzhezkazgan as the proposed place of purchase. According to a source in the Vremya Novostei newspaper, Chechen militants, with the support of entrepreneurs from the diaspora in Kazakhstan, were also interested in the deployment of chemical weapons that remained on Kazakh territory after the collapse of the USSR.

An FSB officer involved in the investigation of the “osmium case” claims that Kazakh osmium-187 was never intended to be imported to Chechnya, since the capabilities for the production of nuclear weapons do not exist there. We are talking about purely commercial interest. “If the Americans, through some structure, began to buy osmium-187, sellers from among the Kazakh Chechens would also contact them,” he believes. Another thing is that the proceeds can be used to purchase conventional weapons. Mr. Nukhaev, whom investigators consider to be involved in the January deal with osmium, has repeatedly stated that he paid for the supply of weapons to militants from Azerbaijani territory.

Dmitry STAROSTIN