Ukraine's military might is damaged by selling armament to Georgia below the market price, the parliament's investigating body says.
"Arms were being supplied for less than fair value, and even that cash wasn't reaching the country's budget," said Valery Konovalyuk, the director of the investigation commission of the Ukraine's Supreme Rada (parliament), the Russia Today reported on its website.
Kyiv has been accused of secretly stuffing Tbilisi's arms caches with the weapons prior to and immediately after Georgia's attack on South Ossetia in southern Caucasus.
The Party of the Regions, Ukraine's pro-Russian opposition party, lobbied for creation of a fact-finding body to investigate the allegations. The party has been a vocal critic of Kyiv for supporting the Georgian invasion, which 'forced' a stiff response from Russia.
Konovalyuk, who heads the fact-finding investigation, said that over four years, USD 2.5 billion worth of weaponry and ammunition were shipped to Georgia, but the Ukraine government has only received USD 200 million.
“The money was laundered through short-lived stooge firms,” the official said.
The practice went on for years thanks to the involvement of President Viktor Yushchenko who had "forced those officials to take steps" in violation of the Ukrainian legislation.
The president is also accused of allegedly depriving the country of the much-needed weaponry, to provide arms for Georgia.
The commission has also asked permission for looking into the large-scale arms shipment by the Ukrainian freighter MV Faina which was intercepted by the Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa in September.
“We are on the verge of a huge political scandal that could have immense political repercussions,” Konovalyuk was earlier quoted by The New York Times as saying on the matter.
Source: Press TV - Iran
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