Russian Officials Silent Over Nuclear Materials Discovery
Russia has not responded to the discovery of the attempted sale of weapons-grade uranium in Georgia earlier this week. The actual origin of the 3.5 ounces of uranium, which was highly enriched, is not known. Some experts feel that the disclosure of the arrest by Georgian officials comes at a bad time because of strained ties between the United States and Russia.
The Russian government, while saying nothing publicly, has denied through an unidentified Rosatom official that Russia was refusing to cooperate with Georgian authorities.
Georgian officials, aided by the CIA arrested a Russian citizen who attempted to sell 90% enriched U-235 uranium claiming it could be used in an atomic bomb. The officials were unable to find out where the source was because Russia did not cooperate in the investigation.
Russia claims that the sample given to them by Georgian authorities was too small to test to determine the origin.
The Russian who attempted to sell the uranium is Oleg Khinsagov who is from Vladikavkaz which is in North Ossetia, an area of Russia that is on the border of Georgia.
A 2006 International Atomic Energy Agency report claims there have been 16 confirmed trafficking incidents from 1993 to 2005 and in 7 cases the material was suspected to come from Russian sources.
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