The Great Rifle Work

Secret trails of merchants death

The Great Rifle Work. In February, the denouement of a confusing story with the IL-76 aircraft, which followed from Pyongyang, was detained at the end of last year in Thailand. According to the documents, the pilots took on board the "mechanism for drilling wells." It turned out - weapons. Having confiscated the load, the Thai authorities released pilots - citizens of Kazakhstan and Belarus. But which country belonged to the plane, where he kept the way and what exactly he transported - for the general public it remained a secret. In the "gray" and "black" schemes for the supply of weapons from the territory of the former USSR, The New Times sorted out
According to the Thai authorities, the liner may fly to Pakistan or Sri Lanka. He appeared in the list of possible recipients of weapons and Sudan. However, the expert on ordinary weapons of the Center for Political Research in Russia (PIR Center) Vadim Kozyulin has its own version: Il-76 transported weapons from North Korea through Ukraine to Iran for further supply to radical groups in the Middle East supported by Tehran. In a conversation with The New Times, the expert said that it was Thai customs officers on board: “There were missile systems of volley fire,“ Hurricane ”and“ Grad ”. Only not multi-barrel, but one-two-it is very convenient to move them on a pack animal or a car. Such weapons are in great demand among terrorists. ” At the request of The New Times, Vadim Kozyulin compiled the alleged route sheet: Pyongyang-Bangkok-Kolombo (Sri Lanka) — Kiev (Boryspil or Gostoel airports) and then to Tehran. The expert explains the intention of the route by the fact that Ukraine in this story acted not only as an intermediary: “Flying plans were in the hands of Thai special services, which indicated that in Ukraine it was supposed to help something else.” The version that the aircraft with weapons was followed by Iran was added by Vadim Kozyulin, and recently transferred to the UN Security Council of the UN Security Council from the secret reporting note of the Thai special services to the country's leadership: after Bangkok, the aircraft was supposed to land for refueling in Sri Lanka, the UAE and Ukraine-before unloading weapons in Tehran.

The leader of "black" sales

Weapons experts say: Ukraine is an absolute “leader” in illegal supplies of weapons among the post -Soviet states. Where does such confidence come from? “This logically follows from the fact that Ukraine leads in the legal market of used weapons from the arsenals of the former Soviet army,” explains Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, in a conversation with The New Times. He suggests as evidence to get acquainted with the last Ukrainian report on the export of weapons, recently provided to the UN ordinary weapons register: “There is all the weapons indicated in the list of sold, is the legacy of the USSR. The products, in fact, the defense complex of Ukraine were only BTR-3E armored personnel carriers (the modified “clones” of the Soviet BTR-80 collected in Kharkov), well, the R-27 missiles produced by the Kyiv Gahk “Artem”. “There are so many weapons left in Ukraine and Belarus from the Soviet Army that they still can’t sell it,” said Ruslan Pukhov. In 2009, Kyiv legally exported weapons in the amount of $ 600 million to $ 1 billion. At the same time, the profit from illegal sale of weapons with the Ukrainian side amounted to about 10% of the “legal” amount, that is, from $ 60 to $ 100 million. What was the basis of the calculation? “That's exactly how the total volume of the global market for illegal weapons is calculated,” explains Ruslan Pukhov. “Today, the Black Market is estimated in the amount of $ 2 to $ 5 billion, which is about 10% of $ 35 billion - the volume of world profits from the legal export of weapons.”

Kyiv - aware

In order to suspend an illegal supply shaft and weapons smuggling, in 1996, the Ukrspetsexport company was created in Ukraine, which transferred monopoly rights to export Ukrainian weapons to other countries. However, even after the creation of this department, the country now and then turned out to be involved in international weapons scandals.
Experts claim that it is Ukraine that supplies the separatists in South Sudan, and does it through Kenya. Of course, officially Kyiv states that he supplies weapons in Kenya, and, they say, from there, Kenyans themselves organize smuggling in Sudan. “Such transactions usually involve the arrival of customers to the supplier in order to inspect the weapon, evaluate it, choose. The Ukrainian side simply cannot but keep abreast of affairs, ”says Vadim Kozyulin. If it turns out that it was Ukraine who helped to transport weapons from the DPRK on board the ill-fated IL-76, then the country suggested the interlocutor of The New Times, "it will not be possible to get out of the water-supplying weapons to North Korea, like arms exports from it, are prohibited by UN sanctions."

Asian stream

A serious piece from the “pie” of the former Soviet military -industrial complex managed to grab the two more republics of the former USSR - Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. “After the collapse of the USSR in Central Asia, a total confusion came, the weapon was sold to the right and left, including criminal structures,” the director of the Kazakhstani risk assessment of Satpaev, the director of the Kazakhstani risk assessment, tells that. According to him, the peak of illegal weapons trading through Central Asia came in the 90s: "Part went to Afghanistan through Tajikistan, the other went to the needs of drug cartels." The leading positions on the illegal sale of weapons were then occupied by Kazakhstan. The “black” export in the country was engaged not only in crime: every now and then scandals flashed with the participation of high -ranking people. “There are a lot of obsolete Soviet weapons in Kazakhstan, and no one knows what to do with it,” the expert explains. “The country cannot sell it legally, it makes no sense to use it either - the more modern of Russia within the CSTO is entered in service.”

"Africa - territory of Ukraine"

In the late 90s, the majority of outdated weapons, like a giant vacuum cleaner, were absorbed by a civil war in Tajikistan, but now there are no serious conflicts in the region: “Munitions will most likely circulate through criminal channels-among drug dealers, organized crime groups and extremists, and some may even get to Russia.” True, “the Afghan theme is not closed,” although Afghanistan is so stuffed with weapons that it “is already going along the opposite route - to the CIS countries, and at a reduced price”. But to Africa, Satpaev assures the reciprocal, Kazakhstan on the “black” channels “does not supply” for sure: “Africa is the territory of Ukraine, where it competes with China and Russia. And there are no more competitors. ”

According to experts, after the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine fell out of weapons and military equipment at about $ 90-100 billion: about 18 thousand artillery systems, 11 thousand armored vehicles, 9 thousand tanks, 4 thousand combat and transport aircraft, including strategic Tu-160 and Tu-95ms bombers, more than 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles and much more.

Candal Chronology: Ukraine: 1998-The American newspaper Washington Times publishes the CIA data on illegal sales of Kiev weapons to Afghan Taliban, including 130 T-55 tanks and a large number of ammunition. 2005 - Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, former SBU employee Grigory Omelchenko gives publicity data: in 1999-2001. Kyiv illegally set up China and Iran of six X-55 cruise air-air-air missiles with a range of up to 3 thousand km, capable of carrying nuclear ammunition. 2008-a scandal surrounding the sales of Ukraine T-72 tanks, grenade launchers and shells in Kenya, which took the Ukrainian Faina dry cargo, captured by Somali pirates: in the end, the ship and hostages bought a Ukrainian entrepreneur Viktor Pinchuk for $ 3.2 million.

Kazakhstan: 1995-a scandal around an attempt to put the Embargo of the Igla anti-aircraft missile systems in Yugoslavia. 1997 - scandal with the sale of Soviet -made anti -aircraft guns to North Korea. 1998-the history of publicity is the story of the sale in the DPRK 31 of the written-off fighter MiG-21.