Sergei Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister, told a news conference that export controls within Russia had to be tightened, but with the world's attention fixed on Tehran's reaction to proposals on its controversial nuclear programs he gave assurances that Moscow would ensure tough controls over a nuclear power station it is building in the Islamic Republic.
As the five members of the official nuclear club - Russia, the United States, China, France and the United Kingdom - are being joined by other nations such as India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, Ivanov suggested that another 20 countries had the potential to develop the bomb.
And he warned that about 25 states either had ballistic missile systems or would be able to build them in the foreseeable future. "The arsenal of delivery means for weapons of mass destruction is vast," he said.
He also said some states, as well as certain organizations, primarily terrorist groups, "are attempting to gain access to sensitive technologies and products by any means, and sometimes they succeed in this."
Export controls
Ivanov also called for establishing an effective system of internal control at Russian enterprises involved in the production of military goods and development of military technologies.
"I think, the main trend [in this sphere] is the establishment of an effective system of internal control," he said, adding that the state could not control hundreds of thousands of companies on its own.
The minister cited the example of a Ukrainian firm, Progress, as breaching regulations after it supplied six Soviet Kh-55 Granat missiles (NATO reporting name AS-15 Kent) with a nuclear capacity to China and another six missiles to Iran.
"This is the grossest violation of the control regime over missile technologies," Ivanov said.
He said these developments were a matter of grave concern and made control over Russia's export of sensitive technologies, which are linked with weapons of mass destruction, a top national-security priority.
"We have already achieved substantial and real results in the sphere of export control over WMD," the minister said, adding that the results had been achieved both at the legislative level as well as at a level of cooperation with other countries.
But he said Russia's security services, including the Federal Security Service (FSB), had been increasing their efforts in this sphere.
A senior FSB official also said Friday that the service had completed about 60 cases against Russians, foreigners and firms that were interested in technologies for the production of weapons of mass destruction.
Hopeful on Iran
Ivanov also focused on the Iranian nuclear crisis and expressed hope that Tehran would respond to the Iran-6 proposals to end the long-running dispute over its controversial nuclear programs by July 5.
Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, the country's top negotiator, will then meet with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels.
"This issue will be discussed there, when Iran will be prepared to set out unequivocally its response to the Iran-6's proposals," Ivanov said.
The five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany have drafted a package of incentives to persuade Iran to halt work on enriching uranium, which could be used in both electricity generation and weapons production. Solana presented the offer to Tehran during a visit to Iran June 6.
Earlier this month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran would respond to the package of incentives on August 22.
Ivanov reiterated that Russia had been and would always be in favor of a political and diplomatic resolution of the Iran, where it is helping build nuclear power plant.
"Our position on this issue is extremely simple and crystal clear: we never had state cooperation with Iran in the sphere of missile technology, while in terms of nuclear technology, the only aspect of cooperation with Iran [in this field] is... the Bushehr nuclear power plant," Ivanov said.
The minister said that Russia would ensure tough security at the Bushehr NPP it is helping to build in Iran and that all the spent fuel from the plant would be returned to Russia under international control for re-processing.
In attack on press speculation, Ivanov also strongly criticized U.S. media reports that Iranian missile specialists were trained at an aerospace university in southern Russia.
Reports suggested that Revolutionary Guards Air Force officers had been sent to Samara State Aerospace University under the cover of a cultural delegation, but the minister rejected the charges at the news conference.
"We checked this information and confirmed it was a hoax," he said.
He said that it was a clear example of purposefully politicizing the issues of real cooperation in efforts to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
"I have to say that unfortunately, the U.S. often considers high-tech ties with Russia, including cooperation in space research and civilian nuclear energy, exclusively through the prism of the Iranian problem. In my opinion, this is wrong in principle," Ivanov said.
