ITAR-TASS news agency
October 16

Through a network of intermediaries, the Relero plant in Omsk has illegally delivered 12 secret R-419S army radio-relay stations with 20-m telescopic antennae to Uzbekistan. Local law-enforcement agencies today told ITAR-TASS about the deal, which contravenes Russian law.

According to information received to date, the equipment was dispatched through Omsk customs bearing the address of Uzvneshneftegaz. One of the intermediaries in this operation was a Finnish company, Massori OU. According to information held by the law-enforcement agencies, neither the producer nor the intermediaries hold a licence for delivering military goods abroad. In order to deceive customs, they recorded the radio-relay stations in documentation as semi-finished products and parts. Profits earned by those taking part in the deal are estimated to exceed 1m dollars.

Sources in the law-enforcement agencies are not ruling out the possibility that, in the future, the radio-relay stations may also be dispatched via intermediaries to "hot spots", and, in particular, to Chechnya.

In conversation with a correspondent from ITAR-TASS, a reliable source in Moscow said that the R-419S is a radio-relay station used in the operational and tactical echelons of troops command and control. It operates at a range of between 20 and 40 km. Depending on the relief of the terrain and the number of stations operating in a line (between 6 and 8), the distance between the stations at each end may reach 300 km.

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