Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04BRATISLAVA1041
2004-11-16 17:15:00
SECRET
Embassy Bratislava
Cable title:  

GUIDANCE REQUEST: POSSIBLE SLOVAK TANK SALE TO

Tags:  MARR MASS PINR LO 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
S E C R E T BRATISLAVA 001041 

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR EUR/PRA (CORDOVA),EUR/SCE (KABUMOTO),NEA/ENA
(BUTLER),VC (ELLIOT)
OSD FOR KELLEY
NSC FOR TEPPER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2014
TAGS: MARR MASS PINR LO
SUBJECT: GUIDANCE REQUEST: POSSIBLE SLOVAK TANK SALE TO
AZERBAIJAN


Classified By: DCM Scott Thayer for reasons 1.4(b) and (d)

S E C R E T BRATISLAVA 001041

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR EUR/PRA (CORDOVA),EUR/SCE (KABUMOTO),NEA/ENA
(BUTLER),VC (ELLIOT)
OSD FOR KELLEY
NSC FOR TEPPER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2014
TAGS: MARR MASS PINR LO
SUBJECT: GUIDANCE REQUEST: POSSIBLE SLOVAK TANK SALE TO
AZERBAIJAN


Classified By: DCM Scott Thayer for reasons 1.4(b) and (d)


1. (S) Summary: This is an action request--see para 3. A
Slovak firm proposes selling excess T-72 tanks to Azerbaijan.
End Summary.


2. (S) Peter Peniaska, head of the Slovak arms firm Petina
International, met with emboffs to seek USG opinion on the
potential sale of 145 T-72 tanks to Azerbaijan. Petina is
acting as an intermediary to assist the GOS dispose of its
stockpiled or surplus materiel. Petina told emboffs the MOD
closed the tender for the potential marketing of T-72 tanks
to Azerbaijan in early November. The competition is between
two firms: Peter Peniaska's Petina International and Roman
Ondrus' Armimex. Peniaska said Armimex is essentially a
one-man company which appears to be a front company for
Russian or Armenian interests. (NOTE: Neither Armimex nor
Ondrus are listed in the official Slovak business registry.
Petina International is officially approved to engage in
weapons sales.) Petina has offered to pay the Slovak MOD 367
million Slovak crowns for 145 T-72 tanks, in order to serve
as the intermediary for onward sale to the Azerbaijani MOD.
Armimex offered 70 million Slovak crowns.


3. (S) ACTION REQUEST: Post requests guidance/information
on USG views on such a sale. We will, in the meantime,
engage MFA arms export officials to gauge their reaction to
it. Post recalls that USG recently chose not to join UK in
opposing a proposed Slovak sale of SU-25 ground-attack
aircraft to Armenia on the grounds that Armenian air was
offset by Azeri armor and wonders whether that would still be
the case. (The UK and German embassies, in the end,
conducted a joint demarche on that sale; chagrined MFA
interlocutors told them the sale was a "political decision"
made by EconMin Rusko.)
WEISER


NNNN