Putin, German Parts, And Iranian Reactors
Germany has an export ban on transfers of technologies associated with nuclear reactors to Iran, in accordance with UN sanctions and its own security policies. However, German systems have been found in the new nuclear reactor at Bushehr, much to the consternation of German authorities. Der Spiegel traces the transactions back to Russia, and Vladimir Putin:
A deal involving industrial equipment attracted the attention of prosecutors and customs investigators to S., who has been doing business in German for more than a decade. The electromagnetic brakes, switchgear, spring elements and special cables that the 46-year-old businessman bought up in Germany between 2001 and 2004 were bound for the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr -- a central project in the nuclear program of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. ...The case's true political explosiveness lies in the structure of the business relationships it involved. The Potsdam prosecutors now believe that they can prove that Dmitry S. and his now-liquidated Berlin company, Vero Handels GmbH, were involved in the acquisition of illegal material from Germany on behalf of the partially state-controlled Russian nuclear company Atomstroiexport (ASE) -- material intended for export to Iran. "It looks as if Putin's nuclear firm deliberately violated German law," says one investigator.
This is not an isolated incident. Investigators believe that six German companies had their products redirected from Russian domestic project run by ASE to Bushehr. The front companies run by Dmitry S and others allowed for plausible deniability by these German firms, who the government suspects of being complicit in the technology transfers.
The illegal transfers calls into question whether Germany can effectively maintain a sanctions regime. Der Spiegel refers to the damaged credibility of Germany's government with this revelation, and for good reason. The efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program have relied on diplomatic and economic isolation rather than war on the belief that Western nations would act in concert to deny Iran the necessary resources for its nuclear program. A failure in credibility would not only potentially limit technology transfers to Germany in the future, it could mean war in Iran.
But the real culprit in this little sham is Vladimir Putin. He needs the income from Bushehr pretty badly, and he apparently will do whatever he can to get it. The Russian government has to take responsibility for its transparent switcheroo in Moscow regarding this equipment, since it owns a major portion of ASE. The front company has done what it can to further Moscow's policies, which now very obviously are in contravention to its stated position on Bushehr as well as Germany's own export laws, which it deliberately conspired to break.
The West will eventually have to accept that Putin is not much of an ally, but instead more than a little of a backstabber. The US and Europe should start moving Russia out of the G-8 and start cutting off access to capital markets. If Russia acts to sabotage sanctions on Iran, there's no need to subsidize Putin's dictatorial regime any longer.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on September 5, 2007 8:29 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)
Comments (15)
Posted by Byron | September 5, 2007 9:10 AM
Didn't Schroeder ("The Weasel") immediately go to work for Putin in some capacity?
Posted by TomB | September 5, 2007 9:13 AM
Germans were known to transfer sensitive technologies to all places in the past, Putin, or not. So did France.
Posted by rbj | September 5, 2007 9:40 AM
Byron - yup - it was in the oil industry. Putin is busy buying friends.
Posted by Anthony (Los Angeles) | September 5, 2007 9:45 AM
So the Russians and Germans are engaged in violating sanctions -- I'm shocked, shocked I say! (And I'd gladly insert a picture of Captain Louis from Casablanca here if I could.)
Can you say "Oil for Food?"
The US and Europe should start moving Russia out of the G-8 and start cutting off access to capital markets.
I'd love to see Russia tossed from the G-8 (Sarko's bizarre idea to enlarge it notwithstanding), but let's not forget that Vlad knows how to play hardball: the moment Europe tries to punish Russia for breaking sanctions, all the new Tsar has to do is close the spigot on the gas pipeline to Europe. I don't think Western Europe has the spine to face a cold winter and an angry public for something as remote as Iranian sanctions.
Posted by Sue | September 5, 2007 9:58 AM
When do we, Americans, finally come to understand that what passes for honesty not to mention truth and justice is an American trait. Albeit, a trait that we have been losing for the past forty years, but a trait nonetheless. The rest of the world is operating like it has for nearly 10,000 years. It is nothing new, we just prefer to believe otherwise. When we finally "get it", we will boot out the UN and keep our own innovations to ourselves. Look around you, without the West, countries all over the globe, including Russia, would be seriously bad fourth rate countries.
Posted by Heliotrope | September 5, 2007 10:21 AM
We still toy with the concept of "open covenants, openly agreed at." Woodrow W. and his bipolar illigitmate first cousin Jimmah C. would have us run to the UN and the World Court to fulminate with piety and wit. Meanwhile the Iranian Trotsky works openly to nuke up the Islamic Permanent Revolution.
Obviously, we need to all sit around and talk and talk and talk.
Posted by Walter E. Wallis | September 5, 2007 10:56 AM
What I want to know is if the centrifuges use an aluminum tube that can also be used as a rocket component.
Posted by Major O | September 5, 2007 11:40 AM
I hear you, Sue, and have been saying much the same for years. I don't think all of our supposed "allies" (in particular, Germany, Russia, France) have been or are truly allies for quite some time now. I cannot believe that our government is that naive, so some other considerations must be at play.
Posted by Lexhamfox | September 5, 2007 2:07 PM
It is worth pointing out that Russia has never really been an ally of the United States like Germany or France. We should also remember that the United States also supplied the Iranian regime with sensitive technologies over the years under Reagan and more recently supplying parts for the Iranian Air Force and putting out blueprints for atomic weapons. The notion that the US has some sort of monopoly on honesty and justice in the world, as Sue suggested, is a little far fetched.
Posted by Coisty | September 5, 2007 2:53 PM
Given US support for Turkish membership of the EU, the Muslims of Kosovo and Bosnia against the Christian Serbs, and interference in the Caucausus, why should those countries be US allies?
Posted by patrick neid | September 5, 2007 4:42 PM
I posted here a long time ago my opinion about Mr. Putin. To repeat---if he was convinced with reasonable deniability that terrorist "suitcase bombs" in several US cities would bring America down he would supply the bombs.
Russia for reasons they only know have the world ass backwards. They know nothing about how we operate. Worse still is they actually think they have something to say. What they only have is weapons and the threats that go along with them. Otherwise they are a self imploding country of 142 million people that, in its current physic makeup, the world wouldn't miss their government if they disappeared.
To any Russian supporters out there, what exactly does Putin bring to the table aside from a runt complex?
Posted by Bennett | September 5, 2007 7:29 PM
"To any Russian supporters out there, what exactly does Putin bring to the table aside from a runt complex?"
He's predictable? Better than the alternative?
Russia has always defined her own interests in ways that make the rest of us scratch our heads. Or as Churchill said, "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."
From what I can tell, Russia still plays The Great Game just as she always did. Whether anyone else is still playing or not (and let's face it, we're still playing it, too). But when it comes time to pick a side, truly pick a side, she will always side with the West. I remember after 9/11, much was made about going into Afghanistan and how this might cause trouble with the Russians. Putin decided to make things easy for us, however, and the Russians provided valuable assistance based on their own experiences in Afghanistan.
Posted by patrick neid | September 5, 2007 8:46 PM
Putin/Russia always side with the west? Putin will do in the most barbaric ways whatever is necessary to hamper the US and all the other imaginary enemies. The entire cold war, and the billions of walking dead lives behind the iron curtain, were the result of Putinesque type thinking. He helped us in Afghanistan because he thought it might help take pressure off his murderous behavior in Chechnya--otherwise he would have objected--as he did everywhere else.
While the last 16 years have been better I don't forget 70 prior years and the hundreds of millions dead. The Russian government has been and continues to be a totalitarian enterprise. Basically arming Iran is just another example of Russia hoping to kill by proxy.
They are never to be trusted. Germany has just been reminded.
Posted by Bennett | September 5, 2007 9:01 PM
"He helped us in Afghanistan because he thought it might help take pressure off his murderous behavior in Chechnya--otherwise he would have objected--as he did everywhere else."
Does it matter why he did it? We needed their help. We got it. And I doubt your thesis in any event. We were and are never going to do anything about Russia in Chechyna (where after all he is fighting Muslim terrorists, correct?). If Putin is as amoral as you state, why would he care what we think about Chechyna?
Stalin cut a deal with Hitler. And then when that went bad, he allied with the West. Without the Russians keeping Germany tied down in the East and pushing Germany back, we may well have lost that war. Does this make Stalin a hero? Of course not, but as Churchill (again) said, "The devil is with us and we will win."
Al Qaeda is such an enemy. And in this fight we have benefited from Russian assistance. The devil is with us and we will win.
Using Iran as a proxy is just another variation of the old Great Game. This is nothing new. And I wouldn't be so quick to buy the German's shocked surprise about just exactly where their equipment ends up.
Posted by patrick neid | September 6, 2007 9:59 PM
You are an apologist. Russia has never helped us ever. The help you mention was circumstantial. That is not help.
It does matter why he did it because your first statement said he would always side with the west. I say you are delusional. He will never side with the west when it counts. He means to bring the west down. You are part of a large naive group that thinks the cold war ended. It has not.
As to your lying by telling half truths about Chechnya, the Russian government has been ruthlessly killing those folks long before radical Islam came to bear.
I stand by my original statement. If Putin thought he could destroy America and get away with it--he would. They are and continue to be a totalitarian government bent on the absurd thought of world dominion. Your silly great game thesis is for the ethically challenged who resort to situational ethics to rationalize amoral behavior.
If the bull market in raw materials continues for another few years you will see Russia once again black mailing the world community, not to mention their old provinces, with their military.