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The President's Special Envoy for Nonproliferation, AmbassadorRobert Gallucci, returned to Washington on April 24 after three daysof talks with Russian officials in Moscow that led to no significantbreakthroughs on the thorny issue of Russia's assistance to Iranianballistic missile projects. The talks were "part of a process thatproduced some results," State Department sources told The Iran Brief,"but not all the results we would like to see."
Gallucci and State Department counselor Jim Timby met with YuriKoptev, the head of the Russian Space Agency, who chairs the Russianworking group dealing with the issue. Koptev has been accused by theCIA in classified briefings of being directly involved in organizingthe missile technology transfers to Iran, a charge which he hasrepeatedly denied. A U.S. official who participated in the talksdefended Koptev, saying he "his major interest is not selling nuclearor missile technologies to Iran, but the Russian space program. Andhe understands that what is at stake is U.S.-Russian spacecooperation." However, U.S. officials no longer discount thepossibility that Koptev may have an ownership stake in one or severalof the Russian companies accused of selling missile technology toIran.
Three other delegations of senior U.S. officials were also inMoscow, although not specifically dealing with the Iranian missileissue. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who has sought todownplay Russia's cooperation with Iran from the start, was in Moscowbearing diplomatic sweeteners in the form of a proposedClinton-Yeltsin summit in May. Also in Moscow were John Holum,director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and ActingUndersecretary of State for Arms Control, Deputy Assistant Secretaryfor nonproliferation Robert Einhorn, and Gary Samore, the NSC deputyin charge of non-proliferation issues, and with his deputy, JackKeraveli.
The Russians are seeking to expand U.S.-Russian space cooperation,and to increase the U.S. quota for the number of commercial U.S.satellites that can be launched by Russian rockets. Both proposalshad been put forward by Frank Wisner, but have since been withdrawnbecause of continued leakage of Russian technology to Iran.
Fuel tanks: The latest case on Gallucci's plate involved ashipment of 21.7 tons of specialized stainless steel alloyed sheets,which U.S. officials believed was to be used to manufacture liquidfuel tanks for Iran's Shahab-3 missiles. State Department officialssaid the U.S. learned about the shipment well before it actually leftRussia and asked the Russian authorities to stop it, but they didnothing. "The level chaos in Russia is quite stunning," oneknowledgeable official told The Iran Brief. "They have experienced areal loss of control. It's a spectacular mess."
But that chaos did not extend south of Russia's border. Once thetrucks left Russia, the U.S. contacted the government of Azerbaijanand the shipment was seized on March 26, as the trucks werepresenting paperwork at the Azeri border with Iran.
The shipment was organized by a private Russian firm in Moscowknown as MOSSO, formed recently by missile experts from Moscow StateUniversity. The Iran Brief has learned that MOSSO has also beeninvolved in recruiting missile scientists to work in Iran on theShahab-3.
One week after the seizure, Vice President Gore wrote to PrimeMinister designate Kiryenko, asking him to look into the case. Hecontacted Russian Space Agency chief Yuri Koptev, who categoricallydenied any transfers had been made by Iran from MOSSO and declaredthe case "a dead issue."
After Gore's letter, Russia's Federal Security Service, FSB,announced that it had arrested three men from Tajikistan inconnection with the shipment, which they said had been declared onshipping documents as "galvanized steel sheets." They revealed thatMOSSO had set up a front company, Europalas-2000, to handle shipmentof the materials to Iran.
"Moscow's Men in Tehran:" On March 17, a Moscow newspaper, NovayaGazeta, revealed that the FSB was not only recruiting, but actuallyfacilitating the travel of Russian scientists to Iran. This wasnecessary, the paper said, because under Russian law top scientistswho have access to classified information may not apply for passportsto travel abroad. To get around this restriction, the FSB providedthe passports, and arranged for 2-year contracts for the scientiststo work in Iran.
Investigators for the paper said they interviewed scientists whosaid they visited Tehran in 1996, and were offered two-year contractsthat included all expenses, an apartment, a chauffeur-drivenMercedes, a personal translator, and salary of $1,000 per month. Theytold the paper they turned down the contracts because they becameconvinced that Iran was seeking "to build its own production base -so as not to depend on [foreign] arms suppliers." By gainingindependence from its suppliers, they said, Iran was seeking freedomof action. "Its aim is to build everything in the country: from thelaunch complex to ground-based services to heavy missiles."
Russian missile experts have been in Iran since 1994 on suchcontracts, the journal said, following a top level Russian governmentdecision to expand strategic and military cooperation with Iran.Major General Alexandr Kotelkin, who was then head of the state armsexport organization, Rosvoorouzhenie, was said to have lobbiedheavily on behalf of missile cooperation with Iran, and its effortsearned it a place on the CIA "short-list" of Russian entitiesassisting the Iranian missile program.
One of the Russian scientists interviewed by the paper said he metformer colleagues from top secret missile complexes in Russia duringhis 10-day stay in Tehran in 1996. Among them: "experts on physicalmetallurgy (they were organizing the casting of missile airframes),specialists in composite materials, and experts on turbines (turbinesare necessary for the [fuel] pumps...). He saw engineers whohad become expert in creating test stands for the ground-baseddevelopment of missile engines."
Russian officials dismissed the paper's investigation as"exaggeration," claiming the newspaper's publisher "lackedcredibility."
One destination of the Russian scientists was a test site in thedesert just east of Tehran run by the Shahid Hemat Industrial Group,where they have helped the Iranians conduct bench tests on the rocketmotor for the Shahab-3, which bears many similarities to that of theSS-4 strategic missile. While Gallucci was in Moscow, an unnamedIsraeli intelligence official told Israel's parliament that Iran hasnearly completed development of the motor and can be expected tostart producing the missile sometime next year.
In an interview with the Tel Aviv daily Ma'ariv published on April16, the director of Israeli military intelligence, Major GeneralMoshe Yaalon, went even further. "One cannot claim today, as it wasattempted in the past...that we are dealing with private people whoare doing this for money,' Yaalon said. "It is completely clear thatwe are talking about Russian policy."
Yaalon reiterated earlier claims by Israeli officials that Russiais providing components for the missile systems as well asprofessional advice, and has participated in different stages ofdevelopment. "This constitutes massive involvement in the wholeproject," he said.
Sweeteners welcome: A Russian official who has been following theKoptev-Wisner (and now Koptev-Gallucci) talks said that PrimeMinister Chernomyrdin warned Vice President Gore during their lastmeeting shortly before his dismissal in March that if sanctionslegislation now pending before Congress becomes law, Russia "will putan end to the Koptev-Wisner channel."
Senate Majority leader Trent Lott announced recently that he wouldbring the Iran Missile Sanctions Act up for a floor vote between May20 and May 22. Introduced late last year with Connecticut DemocraticSenator Joseph Lieberman, the bill passed the House and has 82co-sponsors in the Senate, assuring it a veto-proof majority.
Since Lott's announcement, the Russians appear to be changingtactics, focusing more on what happens once the bill passes theSenate. "The administration has promised us they would veto thebill," the Russian official told The Iran Brief, "and pin the blamefor any repercussions on US-Russian relations on Congress."
Nonproliferation programs: The Russian transfers to Iran have alsohit U.S. government programs to assist nonproliferation efforts inRussia. On March 19, the Department of Energy sent out a memo toofficials at U.S. national nuclear laboratories, warning them tocarefully review contracts with some twenty Russian entities, whichwere suspected of involvement in the Iranian programs.
Senior U.S. officials at the International Science and TechnologyCenters called the memo "a heads up, but not a prohibition list." TheISTC funds new jobs for Russian scientists that will keep them fromselling their know-how to countries like Iran. "This is a program oftremendous value to us," one official said, "so we really have towatch very closely to make sure it is not abused. Every project mustbe examined to make sure the recipients have no involvement in theIranian programs."
Another official working with the ISTC called the memo "part ofour internal review" of the Russian recipients of U.S. funds. "Butlots of U.S. companies have long and successful working relationshipswith these Russian entities, so there is a lot of money at stake, anda lot of concern. Name any major U.S. aerospace contractor - they areall involved" in joint ventures with Russian companies on thelist.
One of the Russian entities affected is TsAGI, also known as theAerohydrodynamic Institute, which contracted in early 1997 to build awind tunnel at a Shahid Hemat missile plant outside of Tehran. TheISTC was exploring funding a TsAGI project involving new aircraftdesigns aimed at improving wake vortex disturbance, a phenomenonwhich can cause smaller planes to crash when they cross the wake of alarger aircraft. Other which could see prospective ISTC projectscanceled include NPO Trud, which previously lost a major contract tosell rocket boosters to Lockheed and is seeking compensation, theMoscow Aviation Institute, and the Baltic State TechnicalUniversity.