Russian uranium transported through Georgia

Russian uranium transported through Georgia
Georgian intelligence services detain criminals attempting to smuggle radioactive materials from Russia to Turkey

In the course of the "nuclear" summit in Washington, Mikheil Saakashvili said that on several different occasions Georgian intelligence services have managed to stop attempts to smuggle highly enriched uranium. The most recent incident took place in March this year, information later confirmed by the Georgian Ministry of Home Affairs: "A group of people, transporting a certain amount of highly enriched uranium, has been detained. Further information will be released after completion of the investigation.” However, Saakashvili clearly hinted that the incident fits into a general tendency - over recent years the Georgian intelligence services have detained criminals trying to smuggle radioactive materials from Russia several times.

According to information given to VC by Shota Utiashvili, the head of the Information Analysis Department, the Georgian intelligence services, in close cooperation with their American colleagues, uncovered and arrested a Russian citizen who tried to sell 100 grams of 90% enriched weapons-grade uranium. "On January 1, 2006, we arrested Oleg Hintsagov, a Russian citizen and resident of Vladikavkaz and his three accomplices, who tried to sell 100 grams of uranium-235 in Georgia to our agent disguised as a customer, and promised that for $1 million they would bring several kilos of uranium from Russia, Utiashvili said. We immediately reported the incident to our Russian colleagues, but they refused to comment on the subject or to cooperate with us, answering that they were unable to ascertain the place of origin of the uranium. Having received evidence that the attempts to obtain a distinct answer from Russia were futile, we have raised the matter publicly.

VC has received information concerning the details of the special operation: Georgian intelligence services received operational information concerning an attempt to find a customer for uranium made by “an Ossetian". A Georgian Ministry of Home Affairs officer, fluent in Turkish, introduced himself to Hintsagov as a member of an Islamist organization, and promised big money for the uranium. Hintsagov asked him to come to Vladikavkaz, where Hintsagov had supposedly stored 3 kilos of uranium. However, the agent managed to persuade the vendor to bring a trial consignment to Tbilisi. Hintsagov carried 100 grams of uranium packed in a small plastic bag attached to his chest.

The investigation ascertained that Hintsagov was born and lived in the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia. His cousin, Myron Gabarayev, served in the Russian customs service until July 2004 and, taking advantage of his connections, ensured the unchecked passage of his relative to Georgia through Russian customs. Gabarayev and Hintsagov crossed the Russian-Georgian border in the South Ossetian border section, which is not controlled by Tbilisi, on September 15th and December 11th, 2005 and also on January 4th and 31st 2006 .

Georgia sent to Russia two grams of the impounded uranium for analysis, but received no answer from Moscow even after that. Russian experts only said that two grams were not enough for ascertaining the uranium’s place of origin, though confirmed that it was uranium-235. Nevertheless, American experts immediately refuted the first statement, saying that the sample sent to Moscow was big enough to determine in which plant it had been enriched.

Oleg Hintsagov withheld evidence and was sentenced to 10 years in jail. In August 2008 the South Ossetian authorities and the Russian military command tried to exchange him for Georgian prisoners of war, but were refused.

This was not the first case of smuggling Russian uranium through Georgian territory. There were altogether eight such incidents over 10 years ( half the number of such incidents registered in the rest of the world), but some of these episodes were not made public.


According to information received by VC from the Georgian Ministry of Home Affairs, on July 24th 2002 Georgian police arrested 4 citizens of “a CIS country” trying to sell a large amount of enriched uranium in Batumi,. Approximately 1.7 kilos of uranium-235 were in a large glass pitcher, wrapped in a plastic bag, standing on the floor in a room in a Batumi hotel, when special operations agents burst into the room.

In 2003 in Georgia an Armenian citizen was detained, Garik Dadayan, who was found to be carrying 170 grams of highly enriched uranium in a tea box. Dadayan maintained that he had obtained uranium in Novosibirsk and was going to sell it to a certain Turkish agent, Temir Sadik. He was later sentenced in Armenia to two and a half years imprisonment.