http://www.gazeta.ru/2003/04/02/Wedidntflyto.shtml

´We didn´t fly to Baghdad to drink coffee´



Текст: Alexander
Kornilov photos from private collection


Gazeta.Ru has obtained sensational evidence
proving the involvement of a group of former
Soviet generals in preparing the Iraqi army for
war against the United States. The generals in
question refused to discuss their degree of
involvement, but admitted that just before the
beginning of the US-led campaign against Iraq they
received state awards from the Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein.



Photos, which Gazeta.Ru has acquired, show an
awards ceremony (namely awards, our sources
emphasized, and not gifts), involving two very
prominent Russian generals.

They are retired Soviet officers, Col.-Gen.
Vladimir Achalov and Col.-Gen. Igor Maltsev. The
former completed his military career as the Soviet
deputy defence minister, after being the Air-Borne
Troops commander and the first and last Soviet
commander-in-chief of the rapid-reaction forces.
The latter resigned from the post of the chief of
the Main Staff of the Soviet Air Defence. In 1991
both generals backed the GKChP, (the State
Committee for the State of Emergency, set up by a
group of Gorbachev opponents with the goal of
supplanting him and preventing the disintegration
of the USSR) and were consequently dismissed from
military service.



Iraqi Defence Minister hands award to Vladislav
Achalov



The photos show Achalov and Maltsev receiving
awards from Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashim
Akhmed. Another photo commemorating the event
features the Russian generals in the company of
the head of the General Staff of the Iraqi Army
Izzat Ibragim and his deputies. On the photo
published above the Iraqi official is standing
between Achalov and Maltsev.

According to our source who provided the photos,
the ceremony was held ´´less than 10 days before
the beginning of the war´´ in a building that was
destroyed by US cruise missiles in the first few
hours of air raids on Baghdad.

http://www.gazeta.ru/2003/04/02/Wedidntflyto.shtml