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Russian Businessman Claims to Have Attempted to Foil Sale of Russian “Suitcase” Nuclear Device By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky claimed this week that in 2002 he attempted to block the sale of a stolen Russian nuclear device — a statement met with skepticism by U.S. and Russian nuclear proliferation experts (see GSN, March 23). Berezovsky described the attempted sale, and his role in the incident, in an interview with the London Sunday Times published this week. According to Berezovsky, he was contacted in 2002 by a Chechen living in Paris who he knew as “Zakhar,” who claimed to be brokering for an unidentified third party the sale of a stolen Russian “suitcase” nuclear bomb for $3 million. During a subsequent meeting arranged at the request of U.S. intelligence in London, an aide to Berezovsky asked Zakhar to provide evidence that the bomb actually existed, but the Chechen failed to do so. Berezovsky told the Times that he provided British intelligence with information on the incident, but added that he did not know what, if any, measures were further taken by U.S. and British intelligence or the ultimate resolution of the incident. The CIA declined to comment this week on Berezovsky’s report. The Russian Embassy in Washington did not return calls for comment. There is debate as to whether the former Soviet Union actually built so-called “suitcase” nuclear bombs — small, portable weapons possibly intended for use in demolition or sabotage — and if it did, the number, location and security of such devices. Reports of missing suitcase bombs potentially in the hands of Chechen militants, al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups stretch back to the mid-1990s, but none have been substantiated. U.S. and Russian experts viewed Berezovsky’s report with a high degree of skepticism. “I’m a bit impatient with all these stories,” said Rose Gottemoeller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “If they had really had those bombs I think they would have found the way to convince the public in their seriousness,” said Yuri Yudin of the Analytical Center for Nonproliferation at All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics in the closed Russian city of Saratov. Experts noted several difficulties would-be terrorists would have in using a suitcase bomb, if they were able to obtain one, in an attack. While the device is known as a “suitcase” bomb, Gottemoeller said, it requires about three footlockers worth of equipment to operate, reducing its portability. In addition, if such devices did exist, they are probably past the end of their operational life and are no longer functioning, said William Hoehn of the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council. Gottemoeller also noted the long-standing animosity between Berezovsky and the Kremlin. Following attempts by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government to prosecute him on charges of fraud and political corruption, Berezovsky fled to the United Kingdom, which granted him political asylum last year. “He’s always looking for ways to pull the Kremlin’s chain,” Gottemoeller said.
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