Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Moscow, July 15, ITAR-TASS. Russian Government export control Commission resolved to conduct a special investigation of violations of "dual-purpose" goods and services export regime, one of the participants of the commission's session under chairmanship of Minister of Economy Y. Urinson told an ITAR-TASS reporter.

The government commission "considers the facts of violations by a number of enterprises and companies of the established state system of export control and of attempts to export dual-purpose goods and services related to weapons of mass destruction and missle means of their delivery", the source told ITAR-TASS.

The list of the companies includes in particular, the "INOR" scientific and Production center, the "Graphite" and "Polyus" research institutes, the Tikhomirov Instrument-building Research Institute, the Glavkosmos self-financing state-owned organization, the Komintern plant in Novosibirsk, the "MOSO" company, the Europalace-2000" and the Baltic State Technical university.

According to the source, the commission decided to conduct special investigations of the cases which result in "administrative and, in certain cases, criminal liability of all responsible parties."
The commission also made a decision to complete the draft of the bill "On Export Controls", which is currently being finalized at the Justice Ministry. This bill would enhance export control over private companies which are beyond the system of direct state control.

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