GOR NEVER RECEIVED INFO FROM POLAND REGARDING

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 003773 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2018 TAGS: PREL PTER ETTC MASS MCAP RS PL GG SUBJECT: GOR NEVER RECEIVED INFO FROM POLAND REGARDING MANPADS ALLEGED IN CHECHNYA REF: A. STATE 134448 ¶B. MOSCOW 3475 Classified By: Political M/C Alice G. Wells. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On December 30 we delivered ref A nonpaper to MFA DVBVR First Secretary Andrey Odnoral, who told us the GOR passed a diplomatic note regarding Polish GROM MANPADS sales to Georgia to the GOP via the Russian Embassy in Warsaw in June 2008, prior to the August conflict. To date, the GOR has received no official reply, he said. According to Odnoral, the GOR has otherwise raised this issue with Poland only within the framework of Wassenaar Arrangement meetings held in September in Lyon and in December in Vienna. Odnoral could not recall the names of Polish delegation members with whom he had discussed this issue. ¶2. (C) Odnoral said that Russia wanted to inform us of the discovery of these MANPADS in Chechnya because the GOR and USG had agreed to share information regarding the illicit sale of MANPADS. He added that this incident underscored the lack of security and export controls exercised by the Georgian government. Odnoral said he would get back to us regarding permission to share the information from the GOR's November 26 nonpaper (ref B) with Poland. RUBIN