RUSSIA ARMS COMPANY DISTURBED OVER UKRAINIAN WEAPONS SALES.

The directors of the Ukrainian and Russian state-owned arms export companies are to meet sometime this month. Ondrey Kukin, head of Ukraine’s Ukrspetseksport, recently offered an olive branch in advance of the meeting, saying that he thought a partnership between the two companies would be beneficial for both countries (See Monitor, February 3) Yesterday, however, the number two man at Russia’s Rosvooruzhenie, Mikhail Timkin, intimated the meeting might not be an agreeable one. He charged that certain successor states to the USSR — and Ukraine in particular — have been guilty of “indecent behavior” in the international arms market by selling Russian arms at cheaper prices than Russia. Timkin warned that Moscow could impose sanctions on these countries, such as cutting off their supply of military spare parts. (Segodnya, February 4) Ukraine’s biggest foreign arms sale to date is its contract to supply 300 T-80UD tanks to Pakistan.

French-Georgian Summit.