Israel Matzav

What's really behind Russia's dealings with Iran: Kickbacks

Here's an interesting comment at National Review Online by David Satter.

Russia treats the consequences of its actions with complete moral indifference. In 1992, members of Aum Shinri Kyo, the Japanese doomsday cult, held a “Russian Salvation Tour.” With the help of Oleg Lobov, the secretary of the Russian security council, the cult members, identified as “Japanese businessmen” trained at military bases near Moscow, shopped for advanced weapons and attended lectures on the circulation of gases. Sect members later carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo metro in which 12 persons died. At the trial of Shoko Asahara, the leader of the sect, Aum’s chief of intelligence testified that the production designs for the sarin had been delivered to Aum by Lobov in 1993 for $100,000 in cash. (Yeltsin’s response was to give Lobov a promotion.

In 2002, the U.S. tried to convince Russia to “reconsider” cooperation with Iran. It offered military and space cooperation and permission to store foreign nuclear waste in Iran. The visible economic benefits would have been the same or greater than the visible benefits derived by Russia from its trade with Iran. But the deal in question was rejected because no deal with the U.S. evaluated by Congress and scrutinized by the government accounting office can provide the payoffs for influential individuals that are possible in a totally non-transparent deal with Iran.

Israel is trying to embarrass the Russians into cracking down on illegal help for the Iranian nuclear weapons program. But the Russians are beyond embarrassment. The necessary conclusions need to be drawn by the West.

People who have never done business with the Russians have no idea how true this is. I've had several occasions to be involved in business deals with the Russians, most of which never happened because the other parties were disgusted by the extent of kickbacks the Russian parties expected. In that respect, the Arab and Persian countries are the perfect partners for the Russians: They are more used to the idea of paying graft and haggling over the price than any Westerner who is used to treating the price on a store item as being non-negotiable will ever be. And they have no shame and no morals. Israelis are somewhat used to bargaining and graft, but never as openly and proudly as the Arabs and the Russians, and most Israelis have a sense of shame and a sense of morality (our rabbis say that the three main characteristics of Jews are mercifulness, shame and purveyors of good deeds, and that if someone doesn't have those characteristics, you should check his lineage!).

By the way, yes, this has a lot to do with world oil prices as well. And yes, the Russians - and the Arabs and Persians - have no morals or shame.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:00 AM