Wednesday, 22 August, 2007

The Age

Former chess champion and significant political opposition figure in Russia, Garry Kasparov, has warned Australia against selling uranium to his country, The Bulletin magazine says.

Mr Kasparov has told the magazine that the Kremlin cannot be trusted to use Australian uranium purely for domestic peaceful purposes, as is Australia's requirement.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says negotiations on a new agreement to sell uranium to Russia could be signed next month during President Vladimir Putin's visit to Australia for APEC.

The Bulletin reports it understands agreement has been reached on the billion-dollar-a-year uranium deal, with only last-minute technical details to be sorted out in to meet the September deadline.

But Mr Kasparov, who leads the United Civil Front opposition movement in Russia, said Australia should not assume Russia could be trusted with uranium.

"Should Australian uranium end up in the wrong hands - and it's not too far-fetched to suggest that Russia under Putin is already in the wrong hands - Australia will not be able to act innocent or to claim ignorance," Mr Kasparov said.

"You can only be confident that the Kremlin will look out for itself, that they have zero obedience to the rule of law and that all sales are final."

Mr Kasparov said Australia should not stop doing business with Russia but warned that, when it came to nuclear materials, "there are more than simple commercial considerations in play".

He said that, at the very least, Australia should acknowledge that Russia's technology deals with countries like Iran and Syria were destabilising the world.