The situation is exacerbated by the lack of effective mechanisms of cooperation within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to combat nuclear smuggling, while the CIS countries have signed agreements or memoranda of or trafficking in illegal drugs weapons. a For various reasons, some Russian officials for their efforts against smuggling as a national priority. For example, the Ministry of Atomic Energy officials have openly criticized the covert operations as the “provocation”, saying it created an artificial market for nuclear materials. This assumption is wrong and should considered in the context of very dubious MINATOM. In the light of other evidence presented here, the official position of Russia on nuclear smuggling to seem superficial and shortsighted.
Between mid 1993 and early 1996, at least six attempts to divert highly enriched uranium (HEU) in the region of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk. In January 1996, this “business” had apparently metastasized to the Pacific Fleet, where about seven kilograms of HEU were stolen from a base of Sovetskaya Gavan. A military prosecutor attached to the Northern Fleet is investigating rumors of a gang of Murmansk, St. Petersburg “, believed that Russian naval officials offer $ 400,000 to $ 1,000,000 for each kilo of obtaining HED. While the existence of this professional organization has not been confirmed, it can not be totally excluded. a In 1993, a Russian colonel a pursues three cases of nuclear smuggling, was forced to leave the MVD. When a trap for a Hungarian, in Moscow, that there was evidence how a nuclear operation was financed, the colonel gave this building exclusively for official MVD, two men and an Interpol detective KGB.