Parliamentary Deputy Valerii Konovaliuk of the Party of the Regions, who is the chairman of the interim parliamentary commission that is investigating the legality of Ukrainian arms sales to Georgia, has called for creation of a committee on arms control within the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Konovaliuk made the call during a television link about Ukraine’s arms trade.
According to Konovaliuk, he intends to make the relevant initiative at the next session of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.
Konovaliuk said that significant quantities of weapons existed on the territory of the former Soviet Union and that these weapons were circulating uncontrolled, thus posing a threat to the security of all CIS countries.
Konovaliuk stressed the need to control and monitor the movement of these weapons.
Moreover, Konovaliuk said that the interim parliamentary commission has uncovered unconfirmed information indicating that Ukraine continued to export weapons to Georgia even after the war in Georgia started.
In particular, Konovaliuk said that an arms cargo arrived at the port of Batumi (Georgia) in the guise of a humanitarian cargo on September 22.
Moreover, Konovaliuk said that the commission established that Ukraine has supplied weapons worth about USD 2.5 billion to Georgia in the past four years but only UAH 1 billion from these weapons sales has been transferred into the state budget.
According to Konovaliuk, one of the possible reasons for President Viktor Yuschenko’s decision to dissolve the parliament could be to prevent clarification of the circumstances surrounding the sale of arms to Georgia.
Konovaliuk stressed that the commission would make the necessary checks and publish the results of the checks, regardless of this.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of selling weapons to Russia during the military conflict in Georgia when he med with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on October 2.
The parliament set up the interim commission on September 2 to investigate the legality of Ukrainian arms sales to Georgia.
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