Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Russia and Iran: No honor among thieves?
We have occasionally recorded the hilarious spat between Russia and Iran over whether or not the mullahs are up to date on their payments for the Bushehr nuclear reactor. None of this departs from the habits of history -- the Russians have been screwing the Iranians for almost 200 years, and the Iranians have had credit problems with the West for even longer than that. Surely both parties have some sense of that tradition in their national lore.
Anyway, the finger-pointing continueth:
Russia has refuted Iran's claim Monday that the countries had resolved all outstanding financial issues regarding the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in south Iran. Russian specialists are completing the construction of Iran's first NPP under a $1 billion contract signed in 1995, but Russia claimed last month that Iran had an unpaid debt for its construction services, and said that as a result construction might take longer than previously expected.
"According to the authorized bank, no funds had been received by the morning of March 7. The Iranian side made its last payment January 17," said Yevgeniya Neimerovets, chief financial officer of Atomstroyexport, the project's contractor.
She said the company has continued its work despite the financial shortfall, which the official said was slowing down construction.
"The arrears have hit our subcontracting partners in the project hard," Neimerovets said.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said earlier Wednesday that Iranian payments had been made ahead of schedule. He said construction was almost complete and that suspending or freezing it was out of the question.
I, for one, have no idea whom to believe. That Islamic radicals and former Communists can't agree on a matter of bourgeois, decadent contract law and accounting is not surprising, but it is funny.
3 Comments:
By 
Yankee Doodle, at
Wed Mar 07, 08:56:00 PM:
What will be even funnier is when the thing gets built, and then somebody decides to bomb it. Russia will be demanding payment from Iran on a useless pile of rubble.
By 
, at
Wed Mar 07, 09:02:00 PM:
It's even funnier than that. As the Russians KNOW it will be bombed, they don't have to make a real one. Just one that will fool the Mullahs for long enough for the cruise missiles to reach it.
So they can use crap materials, cut every single corner, skim 25% off the top etc.
Which leads to the possibility that the Russians will then HELP arrange a bombing...
By , at
Wed Mar 07, 09:14:00 PM:
Or it could just melt down.
Reading about the aftermath of Chernobyl, American nuclear engineers and operators that assisted in some of the clean-up were amazed at how little documentation the Russians had regarding nuclear plant operation.
It will be interesting to see how long they wrangle about supplying fuel rods, etc., to start the darn thing up, after it's built. There are plenty of spare parts, etc. that need to be maintained after one of these beasts goes operational, too.
To quote the Insta-squire of Chattanooga; "Heh".
-David
