Moscow: Russia will seek exclusive rights
to rebuild scores of civil installations in war-ravaged
Afghanistan constructed by the former-USSR, if the West funds
them, saying development could fight insurgency effectively.
Russia has expressed its willingness to rebuild 142 of
Soviet-built installations in Afghanistan at the West`s cost
and the issue is likely to be settled at this week`s London
conference, according to reports.
Moscow will seek exclusive rights to rebuild those
installations in Afghanistan built by the ex-USSR over the
period of 1952-1988; Kommersant business daily said quoting
Moscow`s Envoy in the NATO headquarters.
Moscow`s NATO envoy suggested that the Western
countries, which `have a lot of money`, but do not want to
send their soldiers to Afghanistan, should fund the
reconstruction of the country by Russian companies.
"We consider that civil construction projects are
the most effective way to fight insurgents.
This gives Afghanistan the opportunity to develop a
normal independent economy," Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin said,
adding that Russia would put forward the initiative at an
international conference on Afghanistan in London tomorrow.
"We have full right to demand access to our
installations. There is no place for all these semi-corrupt
schemes of inviting international bids - our engineers had
built these installations, they should also rebuild them,"
Rogozin said expressing displeasure at `some` countries
already doing this.
He said that Moscow will seek orders to rebuild
Afghanistan for its companies without any tenders.
"Even the cheese in mousetrap is not free in times of
crisis. So, financing of these projects is a question for the
international community," he said.
With the help of its powerful industrial base in
Central Asia, now split among the independent states,
ex-Soviet Union had built 142 industrial facilities and
infrastructure objects in neighbouring Afghanistan including
"Pul-e-Khumri II" and `Naglu` hydro-electric stations on
Kunduz and Kabul rivers with the total capacity of 19 MW,
fertiliser plant in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Russian experts believe that power transmission
lines, pipelines and road infrastructure built in Afghanistan
by the USSR had generated 60 per cent GDP of the country in
1970-1980s.
PTI
