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In the capital of neighboring Poland an international conference on the problem of security and terrorism fighting was held. Belarus was represented by the head of the Presidential Administration Ural Latypov. On the eve of the meeting the head of the State Security Agency of the Polish Presidential Office, vice-minister Marek Sivets said literally the following: “When we speak about such an extremely important matter as fighting terrorism in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, we cannot leave a ‘hole’ or a ‘black stain’ called Belarus”.

Such a serious statement of the Belarus’ neighbors cannot be called accidental. Earlier some German media outlets with the reference to the Israeli Internet site “Debka” stated that this year Belarus has sold weapons on the sum equal to one and a half billion dollars. And it was sold to the countries regarded as international terrorism accomplices. German agency DPA characterizes this ‘unexpected’ issue as following: “Official Minsk’s information on weapons export is clouded in mystery, Western analysts should ground their evaluations on the documents of intelligence, on information of intelligence analysts and diplomats, and on the western European military and political magazines which turn to the sources close to Belarusian weapon trade”.

The most interesting thing is that this scandal bursts in this very moment, when Europe and the other countries of the world are going to revise their attitude towards official Minsk and stop its political and economic isolation. What is concealed behind it? It cannot be explained just by unprecedented safety measures of the Western countries. More likely the results of the presidential election in Belarus played their part. An ‘elegant’ victory by A.Lukashenka does not please the countries where black is called black, and white is called white. Another reason is economic one. Armaments market goes second after drugs market in its profitability. And Belarus with its huge appetites, and with its own rules in particular, is a thorn in the flesh of other players in this field. So let’s analyze this “ black hole”.

Take As Much As You Can, As Throw As Far As You Can

In 1995 Belarus managed to sell weapons for a sum equal to one billion dollars. Where have they found so many weapons? There are three sources.

The first one. Everything left from the Soviet Army was put on the market. First of all it concerned tanks T-72, T-55, aircrafts MiG-23 and MiG-29, systems “Grad”, transportable anti-aircraft and rocket complexes “Igla”, “Strela-M”, armored troop carriers, and so on. Belarus also successfully sells anti-aircraft systems “Shilka”, S-75, S-125. It is not something extraordinary, but fairly decent weaponry for the Middle East. Among the most well-known contracts one can name hundred tanks T-72 sold to Czech Republic, each costing one million dollars. It’s not difficult to calculate the whole sum. Another loud history is connected to the batch of MiG-29 delivery to Peru. Three catastrophes of these particular airplanes have been recorded already. It’s possible to speak of the professional level of Peruvian pilots, but it’s also possible to imagine of the quality of the delivered goods.

The second source. Production of the Belarus’ own military industry and of Belarusain-Russian joint ventures. In this aspect the most important branch seems optics for shooting guns and armored machines. Belarusian novelty, an exploratory ‘invisible’ carrier, became famous around the world as well. It evoked great interest in China, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. They say also about some machine-gun with a bent barrel for special squads, which unique specimen disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The third one. The most indistinguishable but the most relevant. They say that Belarus sells Russian armaments to the countries where wars and conflicts take place. It is recognized that Russia does its best to join United Europe as a partner enjoying full rights, that is why Russia does not want to do this business directly, and compromises its ‘younger sister’. Belarus receives 10-15% of the whole sum.

In order to estimate the scale of the arms trade, we would disclose just one figure revealed for the press: profits from this trade constitute 30-35 per cent of the gross home production of Belarus. And the money does not go to the budget, but to the non-budget fund.

A Juicy Piece

Long before Lukashenka’s coming into power among his priorities he named struggle with corruption, putting weapons trade in order , and fighting a monopolist called “Beltechexport”. But later this unsinkable institution became one of the favourites and turned into a real milch cow for Belarusian authorities. Once a batch of ten thousand military boots was sold to Moldova, while Moscow was on the side of Pridnestrovje. But business is business. Later “Belvneshspetstekhnika” and “Belintorg” joined “Beltechexport”.

Unofficial sources state that not less than 50 per cent of the arms sold by Belarus are sold to the “problematical” countries. It is well-known that Soviet armaments are demanded in the Middle East.

The geography of the deliveries is rather wide: tanks T-72 go to Czech Republic, tanks T-55 are sent to China (they are used at the border with the South Korea), APCs to Hungary, Angola, systems of volley fire - to Sudan, Uganda, Angola, small arms – to Sudan, Angola and Cuba, radiolocation stations – to Iran, anti-aircraft defenses- to Iran and Syria. There is a supposition that during his visit to Tashkent A.Lukashenka met representatives of the Afghan general Dustum and they came to an agreement about deliveries of arms to the Northern Alliance.

Wolfish Appetite

One of the darkest sides of today’s armament business is training of Iraqi soldiers in the Belarusian Military Academy. However, the military men denounce this information passionately. Moreover, some sources say that these Iraqi citizens were “Islam warriors” in hot spots of the Middle East. Such facts do not improve Belarus’ image in the eyes of the international community. Belarus with its dumping approach to the trade gets in the way of Russia and the Ukraine.

The question is: how long Belarus will remain one of the leaders in the market of weapons? As the former military counter-intelligence agent Syargej Aniska says, Belarus has enough of weapons until the next presidential elections: “At the Soviet time stores of three fronts were accumulated in Belarus, that is why after disintegration of the USSR and withdrawal of Soviet troops from Germany, more than enough armaments were left here”.

Are We Red?

In the end, it’s not easy to prove that negative sides of active arms trade prevail. This market is the most prestigious and one of the most profitable. There is no place for morals in it. One can name the US delivery of Stingers to Taliban, for instance, or the US military aid to Yugoslavia during deterioration of its relations with the USSR. In the end of the 80ies Israeli intelligence stole three most modern motor torpedo boats developed by France. Some time later the same motor boats emerged in … Libya. Against this background Belarus cannot be named “the most irresponsible state in the domain of armaments’ trade”, as it was named by German mass media.

But in the last months the world has changed a lot. It wants to play by the rules and demands everybody to do the same. Otherwise the country that disagrees becomes an international outcast. And such role does not suit the state that proclaimed liberalization and that desires to join in the civilized world.