31.07.2005
Gathering Place of Illegal Arms Dealers
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Simon Araloff, AIA European section
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Europe's "Black Hole" series
Since the creation of Goskomvoenprom in December, 2003, about 50 Belarus firms have received licenses to sell military goods abroad. Notably only four firms – BelSpetsVneshTehnika (also known as Belspetsvneshtehnika,) Beltekheksport, BelVneshpromService and BelarusInTorg have the right to deliver state-owned military products. Other enterprises, both national and private, acquired the right to export products of their own development and manufacture. In this connection, it should be noted that today practically every Belarus military industry enterprise can acquire the right to work with customers directly, bypassing state intermediaries. But the state
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| Gregory Luchansky |
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reserves to itself supervisory functions, namely, defining the degree of compliance in military-technological cooperation with certain country regarding the strategic tasks of military industry, which are determined by Lukashenko. For example, it is known that in recent years Belarus arms dealers have a hard time acquiring licenses for transactions with customers from Eastern Europe, since these countries are joining NATO.
Among the four above-named firms, Beltekheksport is the oldest, having been created in 1993 by a joint-Austrian enterprise, SEN, (one of whose owners is the Nordex firm owned by Gregory Luchansky, a businessman of Russian origin) by the Belarus Optical-Mechanical Factory and the Analytical Center of the Ministry of Defense. Presently it is one of two leaders in Belarus weapons export. This firm is especially active in Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Algeria. It also delivers arms to Libya and United Arab Emirates. The head of its Department of Marketing and Advertising Vyacheslav Sheida, former deputy chief of the Scientific and Technical Commission of the Belarus Ministry of Defense is well known to foreign customers. The present Chairman of the Board of Directors of Beltekheksport is Vladimir Peftiev, the former General Director of the company. The present general director is Igor Semerikov, who is a past official representative of Beltekheksport in Moscow.
The other leader of Belarus military export is BelSpetsVneshTehnika, a firm whose main customers are China, Sudan, Angola, Ethiopia and Vietnam. The present director of firm is Anatoly Kolesnikov.
The Private Exporters of Arms
Under Lukashenko's rule Belarus became a true paradise for international death-dealers, most of whom are wanted by Western secret services for selling weapons to rogue states. For example, in the middle of the nineties the notorious arms dealer, a kind of walking legend in this business, Emmanuel Weigensberg, citizen of Canada, was freely operating in Belarus. As president of several firms, such as Trans World Arms and ATOS, in the eighties he was one of the figures in the Iran - Contra affair. Together with Weigensberg, his business partners, Wesley Michalchik, the vice-president of ATOS and also involved in Iran-Contra, and U.S. citizen Gai Leonard Moril, the inspector of ATOS stayed in Belarus.
After the year 2000, Austrian national Norbert Furst was spotted in Minsk. Furst is a weapons dealer and president of the Redway Holding Corporation, which was registered in 2003 in Road Town, British Virgin Islands.
Another very interesting person in active contact with Belarus military industry during the same period of time was U.S. citizen Rafael Frid, the president of Continental Traveling Centre. The last western dealer, who should be mentioned in this connection, is Vener Garid, a citizen of Peru, who trades in Belarus weapons. The Miami branch of the FBI detained him in February, 2001. He has become famous for buying up weapons in post-Soviet space and selling them to rogue states, and other hot spots on the planet. He visited Belarus several times in 1996-98, when he bought 17 MiG planes and 15 Sukhoy and sold them to Algeria, Rwanda and Angola. It is known that he purchased of 30 or, according to other sources, 50 MLRS Smerch, which were then sold to an unknown customer.
Among the arms dealers from the CIS there are two major figures, Dmitry Streshinsky and Viktor Bout. It is known that Ukrainian national Streshinsky headed Cypriot-Panamanian Global Technologies International firm (GTI) between 1992 and 1994. On March, 11, 1994, container vessel Jadran Express was detained in the Adriatic Sea. 133 containers with weapons purchased by Global Technologies International from BelarusVneshExport, a company that no longer exists, were found on board this ship.
Officially, the vessel was going to Lagos, and the Eastronicom Company, ostensibly working on behalf of the local government, appeared to be the addressee of the cargo. But soon it was discovered that the governmental certificate given
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Viktor Bout |
to the company was false. As a result Streshinsky appeared on the international wanted list. He was detained in 2001 in France and deported from there for investigation and trial to Turin, Italy. Before the detention, he repeatedly visited Minsk, from where he organized deliveries of weapons to Croatia (bypassing the embargo of the United Nations) Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea and Afghanistan.
As for the Russian dealer Viktor Bout, there is information according to which the Belarus regime used, and continues to use, the cargo planes of Air Cess and Flying Dolphin companies belonging to Bout, for delivery of weapons to Afghanistan and Africa. However, according to several sources, which, for obvious reasons cannot be named, the weapons actually came from Russia. But was using Belarus as a cover, for a decent compensation, of course.
Finally, speaking about CIS weapons dealers and their connections with the Belarus military industry, it is important to mention also the Turkmen firms working with Lukashenko's coterie. For example, in 1994, right after Lukashenko's coming to power, the Globul Air Company purchased eight Su-22 attack aircrafts, 50 aerial bombs ("Zab -500",) 50 bombs ("Betab -500") from Belarus. And the Elmet Engineering firm bought 10,000 unguided jet shells (NURS) S5Ê from Belarus.
Read in the next part:
Death Trade Mechanism
Previous parts:
Europe's Black Hole
Soviet Heritage of Belarus Military Industry
Belarus Military Industry: Gorbachev's Imprint
Belarus' Access to the World's Arms Market
Raise of contemporary Belarus military industry
On the Top of the World Arms Market (1991-2005)
Geography of death trade
Secrets of Balkan Arms Business
The Best Arms for Arab States
Arms for African Wars
Who Arms the Biggest Army in the World?
Tanks for Delhi and Pyongyang
Arms Trade and Fujimori's Resignation
Belarus Weapons Versus American Army
The Buttress of the Iranian Chemical Warfare Program
The Slavic Patron of the Asad Regime
Qaddafi's sophisticated game
Who is to Blame for Darfur Genocide?
Secret of a Lebanese Businessman
Russia Belarus: the Deadly Union
The Slavic Arms Bazaar
Clandestine Routes of the Russian Weapons
Arms Building Union
The Largest System of Arms Sales in Europe
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