Ukraine may have sold air-defense radar to Iraq

An advanced Soviet- designed radar system that can surreptitiously detect American aircraft may now be in Iraq.

The United States is accusing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma of authorizing the illegal $100 million sale of four Kolchuga radar stations to Iraq in violation of UN sanctions. Unlike conventional radars, the Kolchuga emits no radio pulse, but works by passively scanning the electronic signals given off by incoming aircraft. The US fears the units could help Iraqi air defenses survive an attack, because American antiradar weapons work by homing in on radar beams.

The alleged black-market sale to Iraq highlights a larger problem in the fight to combat terrorism, say Russian experts. Most of the USSR's massive arms stockpiles have already been sold off – legally and illegally – and poorly supervised war factories around the former Soviet Union may still be providing criminal groups and rogue regimes with conventional weapons and the means to make biological and nuclear arms.

"All former Soviet republics inherited stockpiles of sophisticated weapons, and leakage is possible in a majority of these cases," says Alexander Pikayev, a military specialist with the Carnegie Endowment in Moscow. "Under the circumstances, I think it's surprising that there are so few allegations going around."

Last month the United States suspended $55 million in aid to Ukraine, charging that tape recordings made two years ago by a former bodyguard of Mr. Kuchma show the Ukrainian leader authorized the sale of radar stations to Iraq. On Monday, Kuchma denied the charges.

The US allegations are having the effect of reinvigorating Ukraine's long-dormant opposition movement; 20,000 people took to the streets of Kiev last weekend to demand Kuchma's resignation. The same tapes that seem to show Kuchma approving the Iraqi sale also contain evidence that he plotted the murder of a dissident Ukrainian journalist, attempted to fix local elections, and engaged in a variety of corrupt transactions. "The Ukrainian opposition took it as a clear signal from Washington that Kuchma should be overthrown," editorialized the liberal Moscow daily Kommersant Wednesday. "The fact that declarations by US officials went together with rising opposition in Ukraine is probably no coincidence," says Valentina Guidenko, an adviser to the Russian State Duma. "The Americans are clearly supporting the opposition to Kuchma."

This week a US and British arms control team arrived in Kiev to investigate the alleged Kolchuga sale, and a Ukrainian appellate court judge opened a criminal probe into the specific charges against Kuchma.

"Ukraine has a very marginal place in the world arms market, so it might have gone looking for marginal partners," says Maxim Pyadush-kin, deputy director of the independent Center for Strategic and Technological Analysis in Moscow. "And the price sounds right. These units should normally sell for around $5 million each, so $100 million for four of them would be attractive."

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