German parts in Iran nukes via Russia

Captain's Quarters:

Germany has an export ban on transfers of technologies associated with nuclear reactors to Iran, in accordance with UN sanctions and its own security policies. However, German systems have been found in the new nuclear reactor at Bushehr, much to the consternation of German authorities. Der Spiegel traces the transactions back to Russia, and Vladimir Putin:

A deal involving industrial equipment attracted the attention of prosecutors and customs investigators to S., who has been doing business in German for more than a decade. The electromagnetic brakes, switchgear, spring elements and special cables that the 46-year-old businessman bought up in Germany between 2001 and 2004 were bound for the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr -- a central project in the nuclear program of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. ...

The case's true political explosiveness lies in the structure of the business relationships it involved. The Potsdam prosecutors now believe that they can prove that Dmitry S. and his now-liquidated Berlin company, Vero Handels GmbH, were involved in the acquisition of illegal material from Germany on behalf of the partially state-controlled Russian nuclear company Atomstroiexport (ASE) -- material intended for export to Iran. "It looks as if Putin's nuclear firm deliberately violated German law," says one investigator.

This is not an isolated incident. Investigators believe that six German companies had their products redirected from Russian domestic project run by ASE to Bushehr. The front companies run by Dmitry S and others allowed for plausible deniability by these German firms, who the government suspects of being complicit in the technology transfers.

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Bad faith on the part of the Russians in their dealings with the west is no small thing and it may lead to their inclusion in future boycott regimes if they cannot control the sue of western technology transfers to rogue states like Iran. Russia has already been treading on this ice in recent days and its gamesmanship could lead to consequences it did not foresee.