Prague Wants Planes in Lieu of Soviet Debt
By Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writer
The Czech army wants at least two Russian-Ukrainian An-70 military transport aircraft in exchange for writing off some of Russia's Soviet-era debt, Czech military officials said Monday.
"It's a dream, a suggestion of our defense minister to the governments of both countries," ministry spokesman Miroslav Sindelar said by telephone from Prague. As part of the deal, the country would also like spare parts for its fleet of Soviet helicopters and fighter jets, he said.
The announcement came as the Audit Chamber, the State Duma's budgetary watchdog, said it would investigate the complex scheme involving Unified Energy Systems and obscure Czech company Falkon Capital that reduced Moscow's debt to Prague by $2.5 billion to $1.1 billion late last year.
Leonid Terentyev, general director of the Russian-Ukrainian Medium-Transport Aircraft Consortium, which was set up in 1998 to develop, make, sell and service the An-70, said by telephone Monday that the Czech army was looking at between three and six An-70s.
Terentyev would not comment on the asking price for the aircraft, but one An-70 retails for some $50 million, according to experts. Terentyev said the consortium would not be miffed if no money changes hands. "We've been [lobbying] the Czech Defense Ministry for two years to consider the planes," he said.
Sindelar said the An-70, which will be mass produced beginning in 2004, is a good aircraft and the debt swap was a profitable scheme for the Czech military. He was not able to specify the amount of the deal, saying it was too early. "[But] we are offering to pay more than it's actually worth," he said, adding that the country needs to replace its aging fleet of An-26s that it acquired in 1983.
The plane can carry 35 tons of cargo, take off from a 600-meter airstrip and fly 5,000 kilometers nonstop. It can also carry 98 percent of the hardware used by the militaries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and NATO. The Russian air force is looking to buy 164 An-70s, while Ukraine wants a total of 65 craft and has already signed up for five. NATO considered buying An-70s but dumped that plan in favor of the as-yet undesigned Airbus A-400M.
Sindelar said the deal is in line with an agreement on military and technical cooperation signed last October during Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's visit to Prague and will be discussed by both countries in April.
Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said the deal could total $300 million.
Marat Kenzhetayev of the Center for Arms Control said the last defense deal Moscow inked with Prague was the 1997, $10 million deal for MiG-21 and tanks ammunitions, also for debt.
