US embassy cable - 04BRATISLAVA1041

S E C R E T BRATISLAVA 001041 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/PRA (CORDOVA), EUR/SCE (KABUMOTO), NEA/ENA 
(BUTLER), VC (ELLIOT) 
OSD FOR KELLEY 
NSC FOR TEPPER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2014 
TAGS: MARR, MASS, PINR, LO 
SUBJECT: GUIDANCE REQUEST: POSSIBLE SLOVAK TANK SALE TO 
AZERBAIJAN 
 
 
Classified By: DCM Scott Thayer for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) 
 
1. (S) Summary: This is an action request--see para 3.  A 
Slovak firm proposes selling excess T-72 tanks to Azerbaijan. 
 End Summary. 
 
2. (S) Peter Peniaska, head of the Slovak arms firm Petina 
International, met with emboffs to seek USG opinion on the 
potential sale of 145 T-72 tanks to Azerbaijan.  Petina is 
acting as an intermediary to assist the GOS dispose of its 
stockpiled or surplus materiel.  Petina told emboffs the MOD 
closed the tender for the potential marketing of T-72 tanks 
to Azerbaijan in early November.  The competition is between 
two firms: Peter Peniaska's Petina International and Roman 
Ondrus' Armimex.  Peniaska said Armimex is essentially a 
one-man company which appears to be a front company for 
Russian or Armenian interests.  (NOTE: Neither Armimex nor 
Ondrus are listed in the official Slovak business registry. 
Petina International is officially approved to engage in 
weapons sales.)  Petina has offered to pay the Slovak MOD 367 
million Slovak crowns for 145 T-72 tanks, in order to serve 
as the intermediary for onward sale to the Azerbaijani MOD. 
Armimex offered 70 million Slovak crowns. 
 
3.  (S) ACTION REQUEST:  Post requests guidance/information 
on USG views on such a sale.  We will, in the meantime, 
engage MFA arms export officials to gauge their reaction to 
it.    Post recalls that USG recently chose not to join UK in 
opposing a proposed Slovak sale of SU-25 ground-attack 
aircraft to Armenia on the grounds that Armenian air was 
offset by Azeri armor and wonders whether that would still be 
the case.  (The UK and German embassies, in the end, 
conducted a joint demarche on that sale; chagrined MFA 
interlocutors told them the sale was a "political decision" 
made by EconMin Rusko.) 
WEISER 
 
 
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