#3
More details in the New York Times, including an overly picturesque description of the seller's appearance. Key bits:
100 grams (3 1/2 oz) of uranium enriched to nearly 90 percent U-235, according to Russian and American government analyses. Important for the reader's understanding, uranium in that form emits little radiation and presents little danger to the handler.
The Russian, Oleg Khinsagov, came to meet a buyer who he believed would pay him $1 million and deliver the sample to a Muslim man from “a serious organization.” If all went smoothly, he claimed to have a 2-3 kg (4.5-6.5 lb) cache stored in his apartment back in Vladikavkaz, which in expert hands is enough to make a small bomb.
After a secret trial, Khinsagov was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in Georgian prison.
The NYT reporter claims this information is based on interviews with Georgian and American officials, along with a review of confidential government documents.
A similar case in 2003. That smuggler, an Armenian named Garik Dadayan, was arrested on June 26, 2003, at Sadakhlo, a village where Georgia meets Armenia and Azerbaijan. Dadayan was carrying 170 grams (7 oz) of highly enriched uranium. He said the uranium came from Novosibirsk, in Siberia, the site of a major Russian nuclear complex that processes highly enriched uranium. He intended to sell the material to a Turkish middleman named Teimur Sadik; its ultimate destination, he'd been told, was “a Muslim man.” Dadayan was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in Armenian prison. Sadik is in custody of the Turkish secret services.
Virtually all nuclear materials seized since the Soviet breakup are believed to be Russian in origin.
On Friday the UN IAEA in Vienna will announce details about the 2006 case.
Background: In 1994, two seizures involved more than 5 kg of highly enriched uranium. The IAEA has listed more than a dozen cases of illicit trade in highly enriched uranium, along with dozens of seizures of highly radioactive material. Between 2000 and 2006, the amounts and purity of the seized material declined as former Soviet republics set up new security precautions, often financed by the United States. |
Republic of Georgia authorities, aided by the CIA, set up a sting operation last summer that led to the arrest of Russian man who tried to sell a small amount of nuclear-bomb grade uranium in a plastic bag in his jacket pocket, US and Georgian officials said.