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Former Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda (left) with then-US Ambassador William Cabaniss

Wikileaks: Czechs blocked US attempt to buy Russian missiles from Belarus

Leaked US Embassy cables suggest US desire for Russian missile technology took priority over human rights concerns in Belarus

Foreign Affairs

Tom Jones | 19.01.2011 - 23:02

The independent Belarusian Internet news server www.naviny.by has published three diplomatic cables sent from the US Embassy in Prague in March and April 2005, according to which the US wanted to purchase Russian missiles from Belarus via the Ukraine and Czech Republic. The cables, published Jan 19, were passed to the news site by Israel Shamir, Wikileaks’ partner for Russia.
From the three communiqués sent by then-US ambassador William J. Cabaniss Jr, it transpires that the US Navy wanted to purchase 23 Kh-31 Russian sea-skimming missiles via an unnamed Czech arms dealer. “Is the Navy’s need for these missiles strong enough to overcome US objections to military purchases, even indirectly involving Belarus?” Cabaniss wrote in a March 9, 1995 cable, requesting guidance on how to proceed.

According to the same cable, the US was attempting to buy Kh-31 missiles from Belarus through middlemen because the Russians refused to sell the missiles to a Czech arms dealer or Ukraine. ‘Is the Navy’s need for these missiles strong enough to overcome US objections to military purchases, even indirectly involving Belarus?’
“The US Navy has for some time been planning an open commercial purchase of 23 KH-31 (or MA-31) Russian sea-skimming missiles from a Czech arms dealer,” Cabaniss wrote. “It has come to our attention that the missiles are coming from Belarus, via a series of complicated transactions. This arrangement is reportedly necessary because the Russians themselves refused to sell the missiles to the Czech arms dealer.”
Documents from the US Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, show that in 1995 the US Navy struck a deal with Russia to deliver modified Kh-31 missiles as target drones. The Russian military enterprise Zvezda-Strela delivered the missiles without electronics, which were then adapted by US aerospace group Boeing and named as the Boeing/Zvezda Strela MA-31, which was first tested in 1996. The US Navy evaluated the MA-31 as being superior to the rival Sea Snake developed partly by Honeywell.
In 1999, the US navy placed an order with Zvezda-Strela for the production of 34 MA-31s which according to an article at the time by Russian military analyst Dmitry Litovkin, the MA-31s were not only superior, but were half the price of the Sea Snake. Litovkin speculates in his report that the US Navy may also have been interested in Kh-31 technology for the development of an Anti-Missile Defense system (AMD) to defend ships against the Russian Moskit missile (classified by NATO as a sunburn-type missile), which he says is in many ways similar to the Kh-31, only much more powerful. Both were designed by the constructor Yakovlev Sergei, though the Moskit was developed at the Raduga military design bureau and enterprise.
At the time of Litovkin’s article, the Moskit could reach 2,800 kilometers per hour at very low altitudes (air to sea, or sea to sea) and according to the author, detection was only possible three to four seconds before impact, i.e. not nearly enough time to react.
In 1999, however, Russia blocked the US Navy order for the MA-31s. Though the first Kh-31 type missiles were developed in the 1980s, it is probable that development continues to this day.
Indeed in 2005, the US Navy was attempting to acquire the later versions of Kh-31: “23 of the KH-31 missiles are currently in Belarus, where they have been for as long as three decades. The propsed sale of these missiles to the US Navy would begin with a transaction between the Russian Army and the Belarus Army, under which 23 newer missiles would be sent from Russia to Belarus,” Cabaniss’ March 9 communiqué states.
A day later, Cabaniss sent another communiqué regarding the perspective missile purchase reporting reservations on the side of the Czechs: “The Czech government has been very critical of the Lukashenko regime, and some in the MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs], particularly those responsible for the promotion of human rights and democracy, have voiced objection to the deal. The matter has now been passed to ХХХХХХХХХХХХХХ,” the communiqué dated March 10, 2005 says.
On April 1, 2005, Cabaniss reported that the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed at the time by Cyril Svoboda (Christian Democrats, KDU-ČSL) had blocked the deal, despite the fact that Belarus had taken delivery of the new Kh-31’s sought by the US Navy.
“The Czech government has formally denied the license request of a Czech arms dealer to broker the sale of Russian KH-31 missiles, now in the possession of a state-run firm in Belarus, to the U.S. Navy. Poloff [US Embassy Political Officer] was told April 1st that the MFA licensing office had on March 31 sent a formal letter to the office within the Ministry of Industry and Trade which is responsible for arms sales, informing it of the MFA's decision.”