Adamov Caught in Iran Probe

Lyuba Pronina, The Moscow Times:

Investigators will probe former Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov for his possible role in delays at the controversial nuclear power plant that Russia is building in Iran, the head of the Audit Chamber said Sunday evening.

Adamov, who has been in a Swiss prison since May, is caught in an extradition tug-of-war between Washington and Moscow. A ruling on Adamov's detention by Switzerland's highest court is expected to be made public on Tuesday.

Adamov faces charges of fraud and money laundering in the United States. But since his arrest, Moscow has scrambled to seek his extradition from Switzerland.

Remarks by Audit Chamber chief Sergei Stepashin on Rossia television suggested that the authorities were redoubling their efforts to return Adamov to Russia -- and not let him be extradited to the United States because of national security concerns. READ MORE

Stepashin, who returned from a trip to Iran last week, said that Tehran had initiated its own investigation into the financing of the $1 billion Bushehr nuclear power plant, which Moscow began building 10 years ago and Washington claims is being used by Iran as a cover for a nuclear weapons program.

"We have agreed ... to conduct parallel probes into why this project has not been completed. The deadline is being constantly pushed back," Stepashin said. "We came to some conclusions that were not very pleasant."

A spokeswoman for the Audit Chamber said on Monday that "it is early to comment, as the probe has not begun yet."

She said that on Friday the Audit Chamber had decided to conduct the Bushehr probe in the third quarter of the year.

The chamber has already found that 655 million rubles ($24 million) allocated for the purchase of equipment have been misspent by Atomstroiexport, the Russian contractor of the Bushehr station, Interfax reported on Monday.

Adamov set up Atomstroiexport in 1998, and the company was later bought by Kakha Bendukidze's United Heavy Machinery and recently recovered by the state through the purchase of Gazprombank.

"The Iranian side has a lot of questions for this company ... and for former Minister Adamov as well because according to their data, a few programs that have been paid for -- millions of dollars -- have not been completed," Stepashin said.

"We are now waiting for materials from our Iranian colleagues in the near future. We will study them carefully with our experts at the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, and I think they will make for some serious work for the prosecutor general."

A source at Atomstroiexport said Monday that Stepashin's comments came as a surprise.

The Bushehr reactor, which is to become fully operational at the end of next year, is only three to four months behind schedule, mostly because of delays in payment by the Iranians, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

"We are putting all our efforts into catching up with the original schedule, and the Iranian side is reacting adequately to that," the source said, adding that there was no connection to the Adamov case.

"I would not take at face value what the Iranians are saying," said Alexei Arbatov, a specialist on nuclear nonproliferation at the Carnegie Moscow Center and a former State Duma deputy.

"It has to be seriously checked, including Adamov's possible involvement."