Russia: September 12, 2002

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The US has imposed sanctions on three Russian weapons producers (the Tula Design Bureau of Instrument Building, the  Bazalt State Scientific Production Enterprise and the Rostov Airframe Plant 168), for exporting weapons technology to unnamed "state sponsors of terrorism". The sanctions prevent US firms or government agencies from dealing with the firms. The Russians said this was sim0ly a sneaky way to stifle competition from Russian firms. The Russian government has little control over it's many arms manufacturing companies, and the corruption in the Russian government makes it pretty easy to sell anything to anyone if you pay enough bribes. And this is exactly what happens frequently.

In Chechnya, a traffic accident involving an army truck led to a shootout with Chechen police. A soldiers, a cop and a civilian were killed. On the same day, a senior pro-Russian Chechen official was arrested and accused of working for the rebels. It has long been suspected that some of the pro-Russian Chechens were actually working for the rebels.