Russians involved in illegal arms delivery to Nepal
Dated 31/8/2006
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As a cargo plane containing arms for Nepal was ceased by Indian authorities, it appears that Russians were the key players in this secretive bid by Nepal to obtain a fresh cache of weapons violating Indian air space.
On August 8, a Russian businessman named Alexei Afanisiev wrote to Indian civil aviation authorities from an address in New Delhi seeking permission for a Russian AN-12 aircraft to land in Mumbai for refuelling.
The aircraft was carrying cargo that was classified as 'dangerous goods'. Afanisiev said it comprised aircraft equipment and anti-aircraft missiles, according to well placed sources in New Delhi.
Two western manufacturers had sold the cache to the Nepal Army. Sue Orsha of Belarus and Emco Ltd in Sofia, Bulgaria, were the consigners whereas the intended recipient was the Master General of Ordnance of Nepal Army.
The eight-member crew was headed by chief pilot Varemeevsky, a Russian national. The cargo was to have reached Kathmandu Thursday but the plan was thwarted after India refused permission to land at Mumbai.
The arms cache incident occurs almost a year after King Gyanendra's foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey visited Russia in October 2005.
Russia was one of the few countries to support King Gyanendra and retain diplomatic ties with him, when the international community condemned the king's power grab with the help of the army.
A Russian university also conferred an honorary doctorate degree on the king at a time luminaries like US President George W Bush and Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela declined to meet him.
This year, the new government of Nepal, headed by prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, is celebrating 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the former USSR and Nepal.
