LATVIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANA HELD UP BY RUSSIAN DELAYS

UNCLAS RIGA 000636 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MASS PARM MARR AF RS LG SUBJECT: LATVIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANA HELD UP BY RUSSIAN DELAYS ¶1. The Latvian MOD has informed us that a number of items that Latvia has pledged to the Afghan National Army are delayed due to a nearly year long effort to get retransfer authority from Moscow. With President Zatlers hoping to visit Afghanistan in September, the Latvians would welcome any assistance or ideas in facilitating the process in Moscow. ¶2. The items in question are 398 7.62mm RPK light machine guns, 1035 7.62mm SKS carbines, and 4512 7.62mm AKM assault rifles, all originally from Russia. These are part of equipment donations to the ANA that the Latvians have pledged in NATO meetings. They actually began the process of seeking retransfer authority for these items in fall 2006, in advance of the NATO summit in Riga. They renewed the request most recently in a June 6 letter from MOD State Secretary Edgars Rinkevics to Russian State Secretary and Deputy SIPDIS Minister of Defense General Nikolay Pankov. Inquiries result in Russian answers of new bureaucratic hurdles that must be overcome. ¶3. Please advise of any suggestions or ideas that we might pass to the Latvians in attempting to navigate this process. Seldowitz