Saturday, May 13, 2006
AS-15: Further Analysis
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
AS-15: Further Analysis
In the continuing story of the vanishing AS-15/Kh55 cruise missiles, it emerges thanks to the Ukrainian investigation and a commenter to this site that one Oleg Orlov is implicated in the affair of the missing missiles. Orlov is mentioned in a seminal UNSC report by the team around Johan Perelmans on arms trafficking into West Africa as an associate of Viktor Bout. Some reports suggest he is currently in Czech custody. Note, though, that an unrelated man of the same name is the well-known Russian human rights group Memorial's Chechnya spokesman (perhaps an instance of the Bout network's tendency to include supposed "Russian celebrities"?).
The Ukrainian government is now auditing the transfer of nuclear weapons to Russia amid fears that more stuff might be missing. Orlov's role in earlier years seems to have included buying arms in Bulgaria for African delivery - it would not be too wild to suggest that he acts as the upstream contact for the organisation.
In a document in the Ranter's files, taken from the accounts of Air Pass for 1998, there is a small mystery. Among the (gigantic) expense accounts run up by members of "VB's staff" against company funds, there is one for a man named only as "Dr. Oleg", who spent fearsome sums on mobile phone calls (suggesting an important person), and also drew sizeable amounts of money for the needs of several women whose relationship with him was not made clear. Could he be Orlov?
Note that the FT report also contains a brief mention of a statement that the missiles were handed over to the state arms export agency (Ukrspetsexport). This would not be at all surprising, as this organisation was implicated by practically all the UN Expert Panel reports in supplying arms via the Bout airlines. It's been suggested to me by a source that some of their products were used to arm Iraqi "loyalist paramilitaries".
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/03/as-15-further-analysis.html
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Friday, March 18, 2005
Ukrainian Govt. Admits KH-55/AS-15 Sale
A little while ago I blogged that an unusual arms deal had been exposed in the Ukraine - the sale of some eighteen Kh-55 (Russian terminology)/AS-15 KENT (Western) strategic cruise missiles to China and Iran by the Kuchma government, back at the time of the 1999 agreement on the handover of strategic air materiel to Russia. The story has been confirmed to the Washington Post, with the relief-inducing remark that the nuclear warheads were not sold with the missiles: artificial sunshine was apparently an optional extra on this model. The Washington Post, it seems, agrees with me that Iran might deploy them or weapons developed from them on their Sukhoi-24 FENCER aircraft. Thanks for that, Post..
There are some names, too. The prosecutor in the case claims a Russian, Oleg Orlov, and a Ukrainian, E.V. Shilenko, were the names on the falsified end-user certificate. Time to go over the files, methinks.
comments?
angrboda @ 6:47AM | 2005-03-20| permalink
re: Oleg Orlov ... and another old friend --
"An accomplice of VICTOR BOUT, a Russian citizen named OLEG GRIGOROVICH ORLOV, is the subject of a government investigation in Kazakhstan into the smuggling of two Mi-8T helicopters out of the country. According to the Government of Kazakhstan, Orlov is active in the arms markets of the Confederation of Independent States, Syria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, North Korea and certain African countries, including Eritrea. He is associated with the following companies: Dunford-Avia Progress Ltd. (Cyprus), Global Omarus Technology Ltd. Lately renamed EMM Arab System Ltd. (Cyprus), Euroasian Financial Industry Group (Singapore and Malaysia), Belmont Trading and Gulfstream. Further investigation of Orlov and his association with Victor Bout could shed light on an important source of illegal weapons flows into Africa."
Source:
REPORT OF THE PANEL OF EXPERTS APPOINTED PURSUANT TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1306 (2000), PARAGRAPH 19 IN RELATION TO SIERRA LEONE December 2000
http://www.westafricareview.com/vol2.2/un-report.pdf (p. 48, para. 251)
Alex @ 5:11PM | 2005-03-20| permalink
elly @ 9:39AM | 2005-03-22| permalink
hey al, just wanted to recommend a film to you - le Cauchemar de Darwin - that i think you'll find interesting. It starts off as an investigation of the effects of introducing the Nile Perch into Lake Victoria, but soon starts concentrating on the activities of a bunch of dodgy russians and the dubious cargo of their planes - which arrive supposedly empty to export 500 tonnes of fish a day. When asked where else he's worked other than tanzania the pilot cites Afghanistan, Angola, DRC...and other jolly war torn spots. Anyway definitely worth a look if you fancy being thoroughly depressed for a couple of hours.
el x
email | website
Alex @ 5:49PM | 2005-03-25| permalink
Ah...so that's what they were on about a fillum..
AS-15: Further Analysis
In the continuing story of the vanishing AS-15/Kh55 cruise missiles, it emerges thanks to the Ukrainian investigation and a commenter to this site that one Oleg Orlov is implicated in the affair of the missing missiles. Orlov is mentioned in a seminal UNSC report by the team around Johan Perelmans on arms trafficking into West Africa as an associate of Viktor Bout. Some reports suggest he is currently in Czech custody. Note, though, that an unrelated man of the same name is the well-known Russian human rights group Memorial's Chechnya spokesman (perhaps an instance of the Bout network's tendency to include supposed "Russian celebrities"?).
The Ukrainian government is now auditing the transfer of nuclear weapons to Russia amid fears that more stuff might be missing. Orlov's role in earlier years seems to have included buying arms in Bulgaria for African delivery - it would not be too wild to suggest that he acts as the upstream contact for the organisation.
In a document in the Ranter's files, taken from the accounts of Air Pass for 1998, there is a small mystery. Among the (gigantic) expense accounts run up by members of "VB's staff" against company funds, there is one for a man named only as "Dr. Oleg", who spent fearsome sums on mobile phone calls (suggesting an important person), and also drew sizeable amounts of money for the needs of several women whose relationship with him was not made clear. Could he be Orlov?
Note that the FT report also contains a brief mention of a statement that the missiles were handed over to the state arms export agency (Ukrspetsexport). This would not be at all surprising, as this organisation was implicated by practically all the UN Expert Panel reports in supplying arms via the Bout airlines. It's been suggested to me by a source that some of their products were used to arm Iraqi "loyalist paramilitaries".
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/03/as-15-further-analysis.html
__________________________________________________________________________________
Friday, March 18, 2005
Ukrainian Govt. Admits KH-55/AS-15 Sale
A little while ago I blogged that an unusual arms deal had been exposed in the Ukraine - the sale of some eighteen Kh-55 (Russian terminology)/AS-15 KENT (Western) strategic cruise missiles to China and Iran by the Kuchma government, back at the time of the 1999 agreement on the handover of strategic air materiel to Russia. The story has been confirmed to the Washington Post, with the relief-inducing remark that the nuclear warheads were not sold with the missiles: artificial sunshine was apparently an optional extra on this model. The Washington Post, it seems, agrees with me that Iran might deploy them or weapons developed from them on their Sukhoi-24 FENCER aircraft. Thanks for that, Post..
There are some names, too. The prosecutor in the case claims a Russian, Oleg Orlov, and a Ukrainian, E.V. Shilenko, were the names on the falsified end-user certificate. Time to go over the files, methinks.
comments?
angrboda @ 6:47AM | 2005-03-20| permalink
re: Oleg Orlov ... and another old friend --
"An accomplice of VICTOR BOUT, a Russian citizen named OLEG GRIGOROVICH ORLOV, is the subject of a government investigation in Kazakhstan into the smuggling of two Mi-8T helicopters out of the country. According to the Government of Kazakhstan, Orlov is active in the arms markets of the Confederation of Independent States, Syria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, North Korea and certain African countries, including Eritrea. He is associated with the following companies: Dunford-Avia Progress Ltd. (Cyprus), Global Omarus Technology Ltd. Lately renamed EMM Arab System Ltd. (Cyprus), Euroasian Financial Industry Group (Singapore and Malaysia), Belmont Trading and Gulfstream. Further investigation of Orlov and his association with Victor Bout could shed light on an important source of illegal weapons flows into Africa."
Source:
REPORT OF THE PANEL OF EXPERTS APPOINTED PURSUANT TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1306 (2000), PARAGRAPH 19 IN RELATION TO SIERRA LEONE December 2000
http://www.westafricareview.com/vol2.2/un-report.pdf (p. 48, para. 251)
Alex @ 5:11PM | 2005-03-20| permalink
elly @ 9:39AM | 2005-03-22| permalink
hey al, just wanted to recommend a film to you - le Cauchemar de Darwin - that i think you'll find interesting. It starts off as an investigation of the effects of introducing the Nile Perch into Lake Victoria, but soon starts concentrating on the activities of a bunch of dodgy russians and the dubious cargo of their planes - which arrive supposedly empty to export 500 tonnes of fish a day. When asked where else he's worked other than tanzania the pilot cites Afghanistan, Angola, DRC...and other jolly war torn spots. Anyway definitely worth a look if you fancy being thoroughly depressed for a couple of hours.
el x
email | website
Alex @ 5:49PM | 2005-03-25| permalink
Ah...so that's what they were on about a fillum..
# posted by Always @ 8:33 AM 
