US embassy cable - 04MOSCOW15782

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 015782 
 
 
DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EUR/PRA AND PM/WRA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2014 
TAGS: MARR, PARM, PREL, PTER, NATO, RS 
SUBJECT: FOLLOW-UP ON U.S.-RUSSIA MANPADS COOPERATION 
 
REF: A. STATE 270530 
     B. STATE 270302 
     C. EMAIL: FGONALEZ-JSISKOVIC 12/23/2004 
 
Classified By: A/POL Bruce Donahue.  Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
1.  (C) On December 21 we delivered ref A points and U.S. 
proposed final text for a U.S.-Russia agreement on MANPADS 
cooperation to Colonel Oleg Skabara of the MOD International 
Treaties Directorate and Oleg Burmistrov, Political Military 
Affairs officer of the MFA North America Department.  Skabara 
pushed back on the bracketed changes suggested by the U.S. 
On December 23 we met again with Skabara and Burmistrov to 
continue our discussions on the text changes to the proposed 
U.S. Russian agreement on MANPADS cooperation. 
 
2.  (C) At the December 23 meeting, Colonel Skabara, who had 
participated in the December 9 Vienna talks on MANPADS, 
insisted on working off the GOR's Russian-language version of 
the draft agreement, saying it was a direct translation from 
the English-language version agreed upon in Vienna.  Skabara 
declined to work from the USG's Russian-language draft.  The 
Russian side submitted 21 different text changes for USG 
review, many of which Skabara described as "stylistic" or 
required by GOR lawyers.  A scanned copy of the GOR's 
Russian-language draft, with line in/out changes submitted by 
the Russian side, has been sent via email to Jean Siskovic in 
EUR/PRA.  A separate email detailing the 21 GOR-proposed 
edits has also been sent to Siskovic. 
 
3.  (C) Although most of the edits were described as 
stylistic, post sees three specific edits which could 
potentially be problematic. 
 
-- The Russian side rejected the placement of the term 
"retransfer" ("re-export" in Russian) preceding the "of 
proprietary rights" in Section One of the agreement.  They 
instead proposed  placing the word "re-export" between the 
words "grant" and "loan."  They argued that "re-export of 
proprietary rights" sounds odd in Russian. 
 
-- In Section Five, the Russian side rejected the first use 
of the word "illicit" in regard to production of MANPADS, 
claiming it had too broad a meaning.  They instead insisted 
on using the word "unauthorized," reporting that President 
Putin had used the word "unauthorized" in reference to this 
matter.  However, they were not opposed to using the word 
"illicit" with regard to transfers later in the same sentence. 
 
-- The Russian side insisted on deleting the last sentence of 
Section Five, which reads, "The participants intend to work 
cooperatively to discourage transfers of MANPADS by third 
countries that the Participants would not themselves 
authorize in similar circumstances."  Skabara said the GOR 
had not agreed to this sentence during the December 9 talks 
in Vienna, and that this sentence was not submitted for 
clearance with the rest of the text through their interagency 
process.  He said that if this sentence is to be considered, 
it would require further negotiations at a higher level -- 
presumably between General-Lt. Buzhinskiy, Chief of the MOD's 
International Treaty Directorate, and A/S Bloomfield.  In 
addition, the entire text with the additional changes would 
need to be resubmitted for review through the GOR's 
interagency process, Skabara said. 
 
4.  (C) At the end of the meeting, Colonel Skabara proposed a 
follow-up meeting once the U.S. side has reviewed the 
proposed GOR edits. 
 
 
VERSHBOW