Russian Jailed for Trying to Sell Weapons-grade Uranium for $1m

The safety of Russia's vast nuclear arsenal was called into question yesterday after Georgia said it had arrested a man trying to sell weapons-grade uranium hidden under his jacket. Officials in Tiblisi said Oleg Khintsagov had been captured after smuggling the uranium into the country. Agents posing as members of a radical Islamist group arrested the Russian businessman in a sting operation.

Mr Khintsagov, 50, had offered to sell 100 grams of enriched uranium for $1m, officials said. After producing a sample, he told agents he had a further two or three kilograms of uranium at his home in Vladikavkaz, in neighbouring southern Russia - enough to make a small nuclear bomb.

According to the New York Times, FBI officials later confirmed that the uranium was 90% enriched. But they said they did not know where it had come from. Yesterday Russia's federal atomic energy agency, Rosatom, also admitted that the uranium was genuine. But it said it could not identify its origin and accused Georgia of failing to cooperate.

"This is a dangerous amount of uranium - enough to build a modest nuclear bomb," said Lev Fyodorov, a nuclear expert with Russia's Chemical Safety Union. "Uranium is easy to smuggle. It doesn't harm the person who carries it."

He added: "There are several places in Russia it could have come from. Either Russia's intelligence agency is not doing enough to stop this sort of thing from going on, or there is a campaign under way to suggest that Russia is the kind of state where nuclear components disappear."

Russia's vast stocks of nuclear weapons have been a source of international concern since the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia says its nuclear facilities are well guarded.

Officials in Moscow cast doubt on the timing of yesterday's revelation by Georgia - pointing out that Mr Khintsagov was arrested in December 2005. He was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at a secret trial in Tblisi.

Officials said they did not reveal the operation earlier because they did not want to compromise their investigation.